Harry and the Emperor's Creed
by Drakenn
Summary: A very unique chapter exists at the outskirts of the Imperium and a very unique boy ends in their ranks, what can go wrong? No lemming, idiotic Marines, but actually ones that can think and posses a working brain.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N – Another story in Warhammer 40k x Harry Potter, this one based on a challenge from The Zombie 3xecutor. "your OC will be a member of the emperors creed chapter, this chapter spreads the old religions of earth and removes chaos worship religions, they will either be rank of chaplain or captain, how they arrive in the world is up to you, main difference for chapter is no auto worship of the emperor, all changes are caused by genetic manipulation and retains sex drive, any pairings are you choice." – No old religions, but the Imperial Truth, no chaplain or captain, at least not now. Sex drive, gene manipulations yes and few more things.**

 **o-0-o**

Ork WAAAGH was one of the most destructive things in the known galaxy, seething tides of bloodthirsty greenskin warriors that counted in millions, if not billions of beings were able to conquer and pillage star systems in weeks or even days. Even heavily defended and prepared systems had problems stopping the tide from washing over the defenses ready to face it and kill everybody. Argentum V was neither important enough to house a large Astra Militarum garrison nor was warned ahead of time to prepare for the coming of the horde. So when the meager forces assigned to chase away pirates were smashed to pieces by a dozen of Battle-Kroozers the only thing left for the inhabitants of the world was to pray to the Emperor and send a message demanding support.

Since that day three weeks had passed and most of the previously beautiful world was now destroyed or under siege, hordes of greenskins laying siege to last few hives that managed to survive their ceaseless assaults. There was no hope to the world as defenders of almost all hives were upon the brink of exhaustion and most of their supplies were running out.

o-0-o

High Lord Aurelian, a Space Marine with over ten centuries of experience, a mane golden hair and keen blue eyes, stood on the bridge of his flagship, a battle barge, called _Shangri-La's Honor_ and watched as a massive armada of his chapter prepared to leave the Warp. The cry for help for help from Argentum came at a perfect moment as his whole chapter, Emperor's Creed, was gathered in the fortress for ceremonies and yearly tournaments. The second the message was deciphered and delivered to him things happened quickly and now he stood in his purple and golden Tartaros Pattern Terminator as ten thousand battle-brothers prepared for combat.

 _Shangri La's Honor_ left the Warp as close to its target as possible, the moment the transition happened he looked at the data presented on hololith displays. Around the planet, there were scores of Ork vessels, but they were the lesser problem as not many fleets could stop the focused might of his chapter's ships. Over two hundred and fifty strike cruisers and battle barges now hurled through space, their courses plotted to bring them to the planet in the least amount of time.

"We are just in time," Lord Traian, commander of the 1st Chapter said. "Few more days and the planet would fall."

"Aye," Aurelian said and looked at the helmsman. "Bring the fleet as close to the planet as possible. Allow us to deploy in the pods and engage the enemy. Thunderhawks are to deploy our vehicles when possible."

He saw the helmsman nod and then he turned to watch the beginning of the fleet duel as Orks started to move to engage his fleet and try to stop it from reaching the planet. At this he just smiled, their main problem would get a lot less troublesome with their enemies robbing themselves of orbital bombardment.

"Orks, so predictable and stupid," Traian said, slowly shaking his head. "Since the time of the Crusade they didn't learn a single damn thing."

"At least this time they chose a somewhat surprising target," Aurelian said and took from a serf his massive axe and a storm bolter. "One that most pirates and Chaos warbands avoid as we patrol those areas."

"And we should have a warning that something was coming."

Aurelian nodded and checked his gear before glancing at the map and then at Traian. "Hive Dominus was conquered and it shouldn't have happened so quickly."

Traian nodded, his silver hair bristling. "We have a traitorous scum to catch," he spat. "May I request permission to lead the strike at the Hive?"

"Permission granted," Aurelian said and added before Traian walked away. "I'll send 2nd and 7th once they achieve their objectives."

"There will be no need for them," Traian said seconds before doors close behind him.

Aurelian nodded and moments later he also left the bridge, at his sides moved his bodyguards, ten warriors personally picked by him. All of them clad in purple Terminator armors with pelts of massive lions hanging down their backs. He entered the level where were placed drop pods and their launchers and stepped into one of them, while his guards would ride in two more pods. He strapped into the seat and waited, second dragging like hours for him as he prepared for combat and delivering justice to the orks.

o-0-o

Defenders of hive cities of Argentum prepared for the last day of fighting when the sky slowly lighting up with the morning sky was crossed by hundreds, if not thousands of drop pods. Each of them was carrying Emperor's Angels of Death to free the world from the scourge of orks and to liberate its people.

At first, they thought they were seeing things, but when the vox network was filled with the combat chatter of Astartes and if there were any doubts, they vanished when first pods slammed into the ground and opened, releasing their deadly cargo. While this event filled the hearts of the defenders with hope, it filled the heart of the Ork Warboss with fear and uncertainty. He didn't expect Astartes to come and fight him.

o-0-o

Aurelian left his drop pod that smashed into the middle of some mob of orks and only smiled when they charged at him. Before first even had a chance to get close he started to fire and bolter rounds started to pierce bones and flesh. Looking at the sides he could see his personal bodyguard land and join combat, their trademark halberds and storm bolter cutting down swathes of enemies. He looked at them and then focused on the orks, his massive axe slashing at the orks in front of him and cutting them down.

Moving forward through the thick of combat he could see more and more of his Astartes join the combat around him. Precise and cold bolter fire killing every single ork that crossed their path, showing the perfection of the training given to all of the Marines at the beginning of their service and later honed in the cauldron of war.

He glanced at the sky and he noticed a flight of Thunderhawks pass overhead and slow down for a second, yet long enough for them to release their deadly cargo. Mag-locks were deactivated and vehicles were dropped, almost immediately joining combat and bolstering his forces.

o-0-o

Traian moved forward as several bolter rounds bounced off his armor, he located the place from where the fire came and he pointed his assault cannon in its direction and watched with satisfaction as bodies of traitorous PDF soldiers were torn to shreds. Looking around he saw his brothers steadily push deeper into the hive, mercilessly slaughtering orks and PDF soldiers that were on their path.

He moved his lightning claw in a wide arc and watched it rip apart bodies of those enemies that got into his path, he stopped with it a strike of a choppa and with a quick push ripped open the chest of the ork that attacked him.

"Where's our support?" he asked, activating vox of his helmet.

"On its way," came reply moments later. "Spartans, a squadron of Whirlwinds and Vindicators will be in three minutes. Sicarans are engaging enemy Gargants to the west and once the task is done they will join you."

He nodded and climbed onto a large fountain that so far remained undamaged and looked around. In front of them was a teeming mass of orks and PDF forces. While behind there were hundreds of his own warriors, their purple armors shining in the sun. Further behind he could see battles rage all over the countryside as forces of the chapter steadily pushed forward.

o-0-o

Several hours later Aurelian looked at the surrounding area and he could only see piles upon piles of ork corpses that were slain by his chapter. In the distance, he could see fires of war still rage as companies drawn from all ten chapters cleaned their surroundings from lesser mobs and warbands of orks. It was just the beginning of a much longer and bloodier campaign, but the worst part of it was done, now what was left to be done was clean up and reconstruction of the destroyed infrastructure. As well as tracking down of that traitorous

o-0-o

Traian ripped the head of an ork away from the rest of the body and smiled when he noticed the governor sweat in fear. A look at the sides confirmed his suspicions that the squad of Terminators that came with him finished dealing with the remaining enemies.

"Well, governor or should I say, former governor," Traian said walking forward, lightning claw in his left hand crackling with power. "I think that your tenure is over and that you can be executed for treason and scheme against the Imperium."

The governor let out a feeble sound and Traian smiled before he grasped the traitor and threw him towards the Terminators. "Take him to the cell and ensure that he faces justice."

He looked around and have the room one last look before punching a hole in the wall and stepping outside and out of the building. His mission was done and there were hundreds of pockets of resistance that needed to be eliminated.

o-0-o

Harry woke up early and sat up in his bed, last eight years of his life were like a paradise to him, after somehow he managed to escape the Dursley's and landed in this strange world he had a family that cared about him and didn't have any issues with getting new friends. He grew up in the city of Shangri-La and in the shadow of a massive fortress located in the middle of it, a complex that served as the headquarters of the Emperor's Creed chapter.

It was also the reason of his excitement, today was the day when all of the male teenage students that were fourteen or older passed Choosing, the best of them being chosen to join the ranks of the chapter. He quickly dressed and grabbing a bag with his supplies he bolted out of the house, hurriedly shouting goodbyes to his adopted parents and siblings. It took him few minutes to get to the school which he attended and when he entered the biggest hall he saw all of his peers and friends from the year, the Headmaster and five towering forms of the Adeptus Astartes. All of them were clad in purple and gold armor, however, three of them didn't have helmets covering their heads and instead showed stone faces, impossible to read.

"We will disperse with formalities as there is no need for them," one of the Marines said. "I'm Apothecary Quintus and I'll oversee the Choosing." He jabbed his finger in a direction of one of the Marines. "First you will follow Sargeant Scipio who will take you to a place where you can change clothes and later pass a fitness test, then you'll come back here for an academic test. Other chapters don't care if they get idiots or smart people, but we care, so if you want to choose as an Aspirant you better not slack off."

There was a lot of grumbling at those words, but they nodded and formed into even columns in front of Scipio who gave them a cursory look and motioned for them to follow him. They passed through the maze of corridors and emerged in the changing rooms. "You have five minutes to change," he barked. "Everybody late will have a five minutes penalty added to the end result."

With those words he walked out, avoiding slamming his head into the ceiling and left them to change clothes. Harry gulped and bolted for the nearest locker before hurriedly starting to change clothes. He knew that being a Creed was a huge honor for the family for the millennia to come, yet he never was told that it could be so hard to become one. He quickly dressed in his workout clothes and walked out of the room and stopped in front of Scipio who awaited them in the next room with a smile on his face. At this Harry felt a ball of ice grow in his stomach, it reminded him of a teacher that came up with a particularly nasty test.

o-0-o

 **A/N – Chapter:**

 **Emperor's Creed:**

 **Strength - 10000 battle-brothers**

 **Organization - 10 regiments, each 1000 battle-brothers strong and divided into 10 companies each.**

 **Primarch - unknown, two additional organs reported, otherwise stable and pure.**

 **Heraldry – the oldest symbol of the Imperium, an eagle head with thunderbolts crossed behind it.**

 **Color scheme – purple and gold with silver details**

 **Homeworld - Fifteen Worlds of Creed, capital and location of the fortress, Shangri-La**

 **Leader - High Lord Aurelian**

 **Fleet - 50 battle barges, 200 strike cruisers – 5 and 20 per regiment.**

 **Recruitment:**

 **-10% sons of current Marines, 12-14yo**

 **-35% sons of the cities and civilized worlds, once a year recruitment from 13-15 yo teen males. Chosen based on academic performance and physical fitness. Each potential Aspirant needs to pass a set of tests, an academic one, and a fitness one. Those that fail one of them are offered spots as human servants of the chapter and crews of its ships.  
**

 **-55% barbarians from the primitive regions of the realm. Survival of the fittest and coming of age trials, chosen based on their ferocity and killer instinct, 12-17yo**

 **Training in barracks outside of the cities, in the wild. Teams mixed from all groups and brought to the same level of fitness, knowledge and combat abilities. Dropouts offered places as human servants of the chapter.**

 **No psychological conditioning and once the transformation is done they have issued power armors and assigned to chapters. Scouts are drawn from those that show an aptitude for hunting and scouting.  
**

 **Chapter keeps a very warm and open relationship with the inhabitants of Shangri-La with their fortress being constructed in the middle of the capital and outposts in other major cities.**

 **Specialty - Massed Terminator assaults, planetary combat. Access to some Heresy era gear and work with Tau and Eldar, resulting in often clashes with the Inquisition.**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N – First half of the Choosing, second will be in the next chapter. Generally, they are designed to make them swear everybody and wonder why did they decide to take part in it.  
**

 **o-0-o**

Harry looked around the hall where Scipio waited for them and watched as most of his peers entered the room, their faces showing excitement and plenty of focus. As all of them knew that chosen ones would be treated as heroes by their communities and would receive much admiration from their peers.

"Since the time passed," Scipio said, impossible to read the expression on his face. "We will begin, do the usual workout you usually do during your classes, but each exercise will be repeated hundred times. Once that's done, at the end of the hall there are backpacks filled with something, you run there, grab one and go for a pleasant jog to the markers with the sign of the chapter. There you will meet another Sargeant who will give you further instructions. Now begin."

Harry dropped to the ground and started with the assigned exercises, he worked out a lot, but even that didn't prepare him for the demands of the chapter. He patiently did the push-ups and other exercises, ignoring the burning sensations in his limbs caused by the strain and instead gritted his teeth. Sweat poured down his whole body as he stopped thinking about the exercises and did them mindlessly, letting his thoughts wander on their own.

They somehow wandered towards the moment when four years ago for the first time he met his first cousin who was one of the Creeds and then just returned from one of the campaigns waged by the chapter. He was surprised and impressed by how powerful the Marines were, reading and learning about them from the books was one thing, having an opportunity to talk with one for as much as one had the patience for was something else. It was then when his mind was set on the dream of becoming a Creed, which made his cousin laugh.

"You don't know how hard the selection process is," he then said once he was calm. "Know just that it pushes you to and beyond the limits of your body. I won't tell you what it is, but enough for you is to know those two things. Study hard and workout, workout a lot. Then you might have a chance to win a place to be accepted for training. And assuming you can survive the training you will be sworn in as a member of the chapter."

Then Harry couldn't understand what made his cousin so amused, but now he understood it all too well as his muscles screamed in pain and wanted to get some rest. He gritted his teeth and focused on finishing them. He heard Scipio pass past his position, but he ignored the Sargeant that loomed over him and kept on doing his work.

"Those that feel that they cannot do it are allowed to forfeit," Scipio said and smiled. "We even want you to forfeit as it means lesser hassle later on."

Harry smiled at this, mind games and offering an easy way out of it was a thing he should have expected. He wasn't just quite prepared for how soon it would be used, he expected it to be done later on, not right at the beginning. But then, different people had different styles and different approaches to how to get something done.

He finished the last exercise and with a painted sigh he straightened himself and walked to the end of the hall, he noticed that some people were already gone. Some of them proceeding to the next stage, while some gave up and left the Choosing. He ignored them and scanned the crowd looking for one of his friends, yet he couldn't spot any of them. He shrugged off and without any more thoughts, he jogged to the place where backpacks waited for them and he grasped it before letting out a pained sigh as he lifted it off the ground. He didn't even want to know what was inside, enough for him was that it was heavy.

He placed it on his back and jogged out of the hall, on his way out of it quickly tying his longish hair into a ponytail so that they would let him see. He grabbed a bottle with some kind of a drink that was placed in a large stack outside of the hall and drank it hungrily. The cold liquid let him cool his body and get back some of the fluids the sweat took out and let him get some energy back.

Looking towards the horizon he squinted his eyes and noticed forms of several of his peers ahead of him, he quickly spotted that they paced themselves and didn't push themselves that hard. They just kept a steady and even pace, the time was important but more important was finishing the whole thing. He smiled when he noticed in the distance flowing silver and golden mane of his best friend since his arrival on this world, Aeneas Trojan. It didn't surprise him that his friend was that far ahead, he was one of the fastest out of the school and while Harry managed to stay in the best few percents he wasn't anywhere close to that level.

o-0-o

Aurelian sat on his throne in a throne room that was a part of his battle barge and looked around, the chamber was filled to the brim with Captains and Centurions of the chapter as well as dozens, if not hundreds of dignitaries from the planet. He looked at his hand-picked Praetorians, their bodies clad in Terminator armors surrounding his throne and reminding everybody who was the ruler of the place. "Bring him," Aurelian curtly said.

One of the guards nodded and looked towards a group of Sternguard Veterans that stood by the doors, they nodded and opened massive doors leading into the chamber. Moments later through the very same doors stepped in a pair of Marines, between them the former governor of the planet.

"Governor von Ludenhoff," Aurelian said once the man was dragged to the place directly in front of his throne and forced to kneel. "You and your actions have caused a danger to the Imperium and death of the countless servants of the Emperor as well as the death of over two hundred of my Creed's."

The governor spat onto the ground and looked at Aurelian. "Why should I even bow to the Emperor? He's a corpse and Astra Militarum is away when we need support, while orks are here and can get me what I want."

Aurelian at those words just smiled and looked at the governor. "I thought that those deeds could be because of incompetence, yet it seems that it was because of traitorous actions," he said and smiled ferally. "Everybody that wasn't killed in combat and plotted against the Imperium and the Emperor is sentenced to death. Their families will be resettled to Shangri-La and until we are sure that we can trust the nobility of the world we want two hostages from each family that will spend next fifteen years on Shangri-La with the exception of the House of Vinar as we don't have any doubts about their loyalty and fealty. The new governor of the planet is head of the House of Vinar and let it be that way until the end of times."

His words caused a mixed reaction, some were shocked, some surprised, but overall they were relieved. In most cases, such rebellions ended with much bigger sanctions and here they didn't suffer that much.

"Until the time the world is able to defend itself and train its own Planetary Defense Forces, we will provide it with two Companies of the Creeds and three regiments raised on the planets of the chapter. Maintenance of their barracks and all of their needs will be covered by the hives where they will be stationed and they will provide training to new PDF forces. Those that disagree with our decisions can petition to the Administratum or the Inquisition to change the decision we have made and think are the justest. The court dismissed."

At those words people quickly filled out of the room, leaving Aurelian alone, letting him think about the future of the Imperium and perils coming towards it. He felt in his bones coming of changes, he just was unable to pinpoint from where they would come and what would they change.

o-0-o

Scipio walked between the ranks of teens that still were doing the exercises and nodded to himself, this year batch seemed to be a bit better than the last one. Then by this point only maybe twenty out of the three hundred that started were jogging towards the next task, this year over sixty were on their way there and a hundred gave up and forfeited. However, that was a thing he accepted and didn't think badly about them as he knew that if they had a desire to join the ranks, they would apply for a chance to be allowed to take part in it once again.

He checked the time and smiled to himself. "You have five minutes to finish, after that point each second will be worth ten seconds of time added to your end result," he said and swept his eyes over their sweat-drenched forms. "I suggest that you finish it quickly as even ten seconds of added time hurts badly as those that started the next part before the end of the time have the remaining time for this part subtracted from their final time."

This wasn't quite the truth, yet they didn't need to know that bit of data and more motivation was always nice as it helped the wavering and doubtful ones. He smiled when quite a lot of them started to move more lively as they managed to find more energy inside of their bodies.

o-0-o

Harry let his body move completely on its own and instead let his thoughts wander and yet again they pulled towards the time when he first met his cousin. A person that at first looked like an impassable mountain, but then became a lot less scary person and a much friendly one.

o0o

Harry just returned from school and was about to head to his room when he saw in the garden something or rather someone he didn't expect to find. A towering form of an Emperor's Creed Marines was letting one of his younger adopted siblings ride on its shoulders. He chortled at it and the Marine almost immediately looked in his direction, as if he could hear him.

"What's so funny?" the Marine said, his eyes scanning the shadows in which Harry was hiding. "Also, I can see you just fine, darkness doesn't hide you from me."

Harry reluctantly stepped out of the shadows, keeping a respectful distance from the Marine, a small blush was dancing across his face and his eyes were looking at the ground in front of him.

"I won't hurt you," the Marine said and glanced at the kid on his shoulders. "Cousin, can you move a little less, it's slightly annoying." He then shrugged and added. "Besides, get off my back and go find your mom."

Harry watched this exchange with some puzzlement and shock, he knew that Creed's were allowed to freely interact with the society and to have families. However, seeing it first-hand was a thing that shocked him.

"No need to do that, Brutus," someone said, right behind Harry and he quickly identified that voice as one of his mothers. Then he felt a gentle squeeze on his shoulder, a squeeze that reminded him of the fact that he wasn't alone and there were people he could lean on for support and help. "Hadrian, there's someone you should meet," she said and he looked at her. "Your first cousin, Brutus of the House of Aurelian."

He looked at her and later at the Marine that walked towards them.

"Yes, he is also a member of the Emperor's Creed chapter," she said and looked at Harry. "He won't bite you, even if we adopted you, you are still a part of the family."

Harry nodded and made a couple of reluctant steps forward, still unsure if that giant of a cousin wouldn't hurt him. Which made Brutus chuckle and lower his massive form closer to Harry's level. "I won't hurt you cousin," he said and placed his hand on Harry's shoulder. "Trust me, if I wanted you and everybody dead, all of you were dead before you could say a word."

Harry looked at the gauntlets hand resting on his shoulder and looked into the golden eyes of his cousin. This moment he felt something snap between them, something weird and hard to describe, yet it happened. He blinked and looked at Brutus who seemed as surprised as he was.

"What was that?"

"Don't know," Brutus said, placed his hand on Harry's forehead and traced the scar. "But that scar, I've seen a similar sign during one of the campaigns."

"What does it mean?"

"One of the runes used by the Vlka Fenryka," Brutus said and Harry blinked in surprise. "You know them by their more common name, the Space Wolves."

"Ah," Harry said. "We are supposed to learn about them in few days."

"It might be useful to know about their true name," Brutus said and looked at Harry. "So, cousin mind letting me learn a thing or two about you. I might let you annoy me with the questions about the chapter and few more things."

Harry smiled and after a quick glance at his mom nodded and looked at Brutus. As he did it he was yet unaware of how badly it would change his life and the future to come.

o0o

Harry felt his body start to ache him and get him out of the thoughts that left a bright smile on his lips. He looked towards the horizon and saw that the end goal of the jog was close as he could see a pair of poles with chapter signs grow with each of his steps and his tiredness seemed to disappear on its own.

He crossed the line and almost stopped in place right after passing it, he dropped the backpack and looked at the Creed that waited for him. The Creed noticed him and nodded at him. "Very good, fifteenth time," the Marine said and looked at the scroll he was holding. "Next task is to swim ten lapses, stroke is up to you."

Harry nodded and looked at the pool behind the Marine, there were some people already in the water and they were swimming in their clothes. He ran towards the pool and once he was at the very edge of it jumped and in the air moved so that he slammed into the water hands first. Not breaking the move he moved into the freestyle stroke, kicking the water and moving as fast as possible. He loved being in the water and if he could get a chance to catch up on time he wasn't going to let it pass.

o-0-o

Quintus listened to his vox and then smiled before looking at the Headmaster of the school. "It seems that the first two tasks are almost done and we have hundred and twenty that passed the first trial. I must say that I'm proud of this school and its students."

"We do our best to prepare them for their future life," the Headmaster said with a bow of his head. "Also this year is an exceptional one as we have many showing great promise, Hadrian and Aeneas being the best ones."

Quintus nodded and looked at the manilla folders with data about each student, he quickly found ones about the students mentioned by the Headmaster and pulled them out. "Both stand at hundred and seventy centimeters, sixty-five kilos of weight, fit and healthy and either good or very good scores," he said, his eyes scanning data. "I can see the reason why you're proud of them. If they pass the trials they should make fine Astartes."

"If I may ask, what kind of a test did you prepare for them?"

"History, logic, science, and knowledge of the wider Imperium," Quintus said. "We want to see how well they know those areas and if they possess a brain that can think. It shouldn't be an impossible to complete the task and we already have our eyes set on few candidates."

"That's good," the Headmaster nodded. "We are happy to provide the best possible candidates we can."

Quintus nodded and tapped his vox. "Get a Thunderhawk ready, we have a rather sizeable group of potential Aspirants."

o-0-o

Harry emerged from the pool and shaking the water out of himself he walked to the Sargeant who gave him a look and nodded. "The same way you came, this time with no additional weight," he said.

Harry groaned but nodded and ignoring the scorching sun as well as his muscles and tendons that screamed in pain he started the jog back. He kept a steady pace, hoping not to lose any advantage he had gained when swimming those few laps.

 **o-0-o**

 **A/N – Regiments and chapters are used interchangeably for 1000 strong units, if they operate with other chapters they use chapters not to irk them, alone prefer regiments. Centurions are leaders of them and each has ten or twenty men strong bodyguard unit – Praetorians.**

 **Before people ask for Primarch, I think it is quite obvious who it is, especially based on the criteria used when choosing Aspirants and the color scheme. No more will be said for now.**


	3. Chapter 3

Harry entered back into the building, panting like a bellow, his whole body shuddering from the amount of work it needed to do. Now it was allowed some rest and he was going to use as much as he could. He noticed a bottle fly towards him and he snatched it out of the air. He looked who did it and he smiled when he recognized that it was Aeneas. "Thanks, Aen," he mumbled in the direction of his best friend.

"No problem," Aeneas shrugged and looked at him. "Not the worst time, I don't know how, but you came fifth."

It was then that Harry looked around and noticed that in the room there were just five of them, the rest of the group still on their way back or forfeiting. "I ran as fast as I could," Harry chuckled. "Swimming also helped."

Aeneas gave him a dirty look. "Water and you, give you gills and you could spend your whole life there."

Harry laughed at it and threw his head backwards. "But I wouldn't see your pretty face and I would kinda miss it."

"As if you didn't see me often enough for past few years."

Harry grumbled and drank some water before looking at his friend. "Jokes aside, do you know anything?"

"One of the Creed's was here right before you came," one of the boys said. "Apothecary if I'm right, he said that we have twenty minutes to rest, take a shower if we want and grab something to eat."

Harry nodded and looked at Aeneas. "Keep a spot for me, I'm going to take a shower and get less smelly," he said, sniffing the air.

"Smell of a fish would fit you," Aeneas joked and Harry glared at him. "Fine, do it and get back."

Harry nodded and jogged to the changing rooms, he opened his locker and pulling out the bag he was grateful that he took a second set of clothes, as if knowing this could have happened. He grabbed them and hit the showers, letting the warm water wash away all of the grime, sweat and dirt of his body as well as remove most of the aches and pains he felt. Stepping out of it he felt like a young demigod with not a single muscle screaming and demanding rest. He threw his dirty clothes into the bag, stowed all of it into the locker and hurried into the room where they waited to see what would be the next thing hurled at them. When he entered it he noticed a Creed standing there and looking at them.

"All of you passed the first part of the trials," the Creed said and let them show their happiness and joy. "However this is not all of them for the day. The more important and harder one is ahead of you. Many chapters care about ferocity in combat and physical attributes of warriors they recruit, but that won't pass here. We want people that can think and are smart, so now you will have ninety minutes to solve a simple test so that we can see how good you are and choose twenty best for further training."

There were heard some moans and groans of complain, yet it seemed as if the Creed didn't care about them. Harry just accepted the fact with weird, serene calmness as he knew a written test or exam would happen.

"Follow me," the Creed said and turned around before walking out of the room.

They dutifully did it and soon they discovered that they were walking towards one of the numerous classrooms and lecture halls. The Creed opened door inside and let them pass before entering after them.

"The rules are simple," he said once they were seated and looking at him. "You have twenty tasks, each worth five points. For a cheating attempt you will lose five points, to pass you need to gather at least eighty points. You have ninety minutes, but for each ten minutes after sixty minutes mark you will lose further ten points."

Harry closed his eyes and went through the very basic calming exercises he was taught, slowing down his breath and heartbeat, letting his mind think clearly and without too many emotions clouding it. "I have ninety minutes to finish, but for each ten minutes after sixty minutes mark I will lose ten, so I need to finish it in seventy minutes and for a cheating attempt I will lose five points," he muttered to himself and then his eyes widened. "Cheating is a way to pass it," he slowly said under his breath.

He glanced to the side and looked at his best friend who looked as if he realized something that was so obvious that it was stupid. "Is it...?" Aeneas asked.

"Yes," Harry said with a wide grin. "It is about that very same thing you think about."

Before they had a chance to talk for much longer tests were handed to them and they needed to start working. Before starting to write answers Harry gave the test in front of him a look and scanned the questions. As he looked at the most of them he felt a small ball of ice form in his stomach, most was beyond the supposed level of their knowledge. Not by a lot, but by just enough to be a challenge.

o-0-o

Thunderhawks descended from the orbit and plummeted into the atmosphere of Shangri-La as beautiful cocoons of flames wreathed them and made them look like phoenixes from ancient Terran myths. Their path was leveled out once they were a couple of kilometers above the surface of the planet and then flew towards the fortress-monastery located in the middle of the biggest city and the capital of the planet.

The fortress was an intimidating, yet a beautiful sight, tall curtain walls covered in the whitest marble available and adorned with exquisite gold inlaids and engravings that made them look like pieces of art, not creations of military engineering. In even distance from each other were placed high towers that overlooked the city and the insides of the fortress. In those walls were placed four massive gates forged out of adamantium and even rarer auramite. Each of them was perfectly aligned with one of the four cardinal directions of the world and was big enough to let two Spartan assault tanks move at the same time in both direction. In front of them were large, open plazas that also served as parade grounds and the beginning of the most important alleys of the city.

Inside of those massive and intimidating walls was a small city that served as the administrative center for the whole realm, living quarters for the whole chapter, its extensive armories and forges as well as training grounds and libraries and laboratories for its Techmarines, dozens of ground to orbit weapons stations and several large arenas with stands for the audience. Each of them even if designed with a specific purpose in mind was a beautiful piece of art designed in an almost forgotten to the wider Imperium classical style. However those things were more or less a common trait for almost every other chapter of the Space Marines, what was unique for it was the fact that it wasn't a thing sealed off from the outside world and interactions between the chapter and inhabitants of the world were a common thing. Which was also reflected by the fact that unless it was past the curfew or other special and rare reason the gates were always opened.

With a roar of the engines Thunderhawks slowed down and passing above the walls entered into hover before gently descending onto one of the numerous landing pads. Once on the ground the ramp located at the front of the vehicle opened and Aurelian walked out, to his sides his Praetorians.

"Welcome back, My Lord," said a Creed that approached him, he had armor with a white helmet and outlines of chapter sign on the pauldrons of his armor were white. "I have a pleasure to report that the Choosing goes as planned even if most of the Apothecaries was deployed with your forces."

"How does it look?" Aurelian asked as they walked towards a building that housed command center of the chapter.

"As predicted, maybe slightly better. We have five hundred spots planned, but it seems that twice the number can complete the trials."

"Take all of them," Aurelian said and the Marine looked at him. "While I know, Chief Apothecary, that it pushes the patience of the Inquisition to its limits two companies were almost wiped out in an ambush and few more suffered casualties because of those orks that invaded Argentum."

"How did it happened?"

"Few Baneblades and dozen of Russes waited for a column of Rhinos, opened fire when they were sure nothing would get away," Aurelian said and winced. "If the loss of our brothers wasn't bad enough, we also lost all of their gene seeds and their bodies were desecrated by those things."

Chief Apothecary nodded, his lips pulled into a thin line. "If you excuse me, High Lord, with those events known to me I need to change the orders given to detachment all over the planet, as well as oversee development of new gene seed."

Aurelian nodded and let the Apothecary go away, while he himself headed for the command center. Even with the campaign done there were dozens of things that needed to be done before he could see his family and have time for himself.

o-0-o

Harry placed aside the pen and raised his hand into the air to signal that he was done, the Creed that was in the room nodded and indicated for him to get to the front of the room with his test.

"Leave the room and wait for everybody else on the corridor," the Creed said, taking the test from Harry. "Once we decide who is to be chosen we will announce the result in the hall where the whole thing started."

Three hours later they were herded into the hall where the Choosing started and looking around Harry had troubles believing so many people could have dropped out. If he could see it right there was just under hundred of them, which compared to the previous number of over few hundred was a huge surprise.

"We have made our decision," Apothecary Quintus said. "We chose sixty people that we think meet our needs the best. However before we read their names there's one thing they need to be aware of. Once you come with us, your life will belong to the chapter and for the next two years you won't see your families as for the whole length of the basic training we don't allow any contact with the outside world. Also the chance that you die during training is high, so if anybody wants to withdraw before we announce the names."

Harry looked around and saw that nobody even considered withdrawing, previous parts of the whole thing made any weak ones withdraw and ensured that only the best or the most determined remained in the room. All of them stood tall and were ready to face the challenges thrown at them by the Creed's.

"Good," Quintus said and unrolled a scroll. "I will read your name and you are to walk onto the plaza outside of the complex and wait by one of the two Thunderhawks."

Harry felt excitement course through his body as he waited patiently for the Apothecary to start reading the list, first few names were the names of people he knew from passing. Then he paused for a moment in complete shock and surprise.

"Aeneas Trojan," the Apothecary read of the list.

Harry blinked at those words and looked at his best friend who seemed rather surprised, yet there was joy and happiness visible below that outer layer. Harry just smiled in the direction of Aeneas who without thinking too much walked out of the hall and towards the Thunderhawks. Next several moments felt to Harry like an eternity, he knew that he fared well when it came to the physical part of the test, but he wasn't sure about the academic one. As he was getting accustomed to the idea of not being chosen his name was read.

"Hadrian of the House of Julia," the Apothecary read.

Harry let out a huge breath of relief and with joy coursing through his veins jogged out of the hall, coming to stop in front of a purple Thunderhawk gunship that sat in the middle of a plaza. He could see two dozens of his fellow classmates there, as well as a sizeable group of bystanders that watched it. After all the Choosing was one of the holidays on the planet and since people didn't have much to do they tended to watch it proceed.

"I see that they also chose you," Aeneas merrily said as Harry stopped to his side. "I was kinda prepared that I would need to survive all of the shit they throw at us on my own."

Harry smiled at it and gave his friend a look. "Do you think you would fail without me?"

Aeneas scowled at those words. "No, it just would be boring as hell without you and your company."

Harry was about to say something when he felt something or someone approach him, he tensed and slowly turned around, coming face to face with that Sargeant Scipio.

"Good, runt," Scipio said. "You actually spotted me coming, let me guess, someone in your family is a Marine."

"Yes, Sargeant," Harry managed to say, his voice a little squeaky. "Cousin, Brutus of the House of Aurelian."

Scipio nodded and whistled. "Captain of the Ninety-fourth Company, he was always stealthy and annoyingly hard to find when he actually didn't want to be found. So you probably learned how to find Marines."

"Yes, Sargeant," Harry said more easily this time and much to his surprise managed to control his voice that this time didn't crack.

Scipio nodded and stalked some distance away, his massive form standing out like a sore thumb. "Form up into two lines," he barked.

They shuffled, forming two somewhat even lines in front of the Sargeant who gave them a look and walked in front of them, a dangerous scowl on his face as if a storm was coming. He stopped at one end and gave them one more look. "A passable thing... for a mob of children!," he barked. "Not for the Aspirants of the chapter!"

They all jumped up, trying to even out the line and make it look like a line, not like a rueful mob. The Sargeant once again walked in front of them, his gaze boring into their eyes and making them look away. As Harry crossed his eyes with the Sargeant he was unable to look too long into those golden eyes, there was something unsettling about them.

"It's not wholly human," he murmured under his breath.

"Aye, I feel it too," Aeneas whispered to the side and Harry looked at him. "Or he's just that scary."

They didn't have too much time to talk as the Sargeant nodded to himself and looked at them. "Board a Thunderhawk, we're done here. Take a good look around, for years to come you won't see the city."

Harry gave the city one last look and with a heavy heart boarded a Thunderhawk, this city was a place he came to love and it provided him with plenty of the best memories of his life. Yet he felt that he would have plenty of opportunities to see it once he would be a Creed.

He shook his head and took a seat to the side of Aeneas, the moment he did this the engines of the Thunderhawk roared and the craft shot into the atmosphere. Harry felt the acceleration push him into the seat and as he looked out of the window he saw the city become smaller and smaller with each second.

"Before we get to our destination we have something like an hour," Scipio said, removing his helmet and revealing a battle scarred, completely bald head. "Since I don't want to waste my time once we are on the ground I'll tell it to you now and hope that it stays inside of your thick skulls. Is it clear?"

There was a chorus of acknowledgement and Scipio walked towards them.

"Good, since the time of your Choosing you are the Aspirants of the chapter and you train to be one of the deadliest warriors in the galaxy," Scipio said. "We don't accept disobedience and sloppiness and we will punish you hard for it. You fail and your whole unit will feel the consequences of your misdeeds."

He gave them a moment to digest and then resumed walking down the middle of the compartment. "When we land you will get medical checkups, psychic examination, your gear for your stay at the camp and a tattoo marking you as those belonging to the chapter."

Harry nodded and shot a quick look around the compartment, most of them was determined and didn't show a sign of fear or uncertainty. Yet at this he just smiled, he knew, knew all too well that even if he was bragging about something there was a time when he would be tested and the true value of his skill would be shown.

o-0-o

Sargeant Vibius checked his boltgun and then looked at the reinforced squad that formed around him. "We come in fast, we capture ones we want, we kill the rest and we are gone, letting Arbites deal with the rest."

He heard a chorus of acknowledgements over the vox and nodded to himself before indicating the door. Two Marines walked forward and kicked door open before charging inside. He let one more pair enter the complex before he followed. It was a typical Administratum building with plenty of small rooms and corridors that formed a maze.

He consulted the blueprint uploaded into his armor and then walked forward, his eyes scanning the darkness around him as he gripped comfortably his boltgun. Reports were about some zealots or heretics stirring troubles and the Arbites asked for some help and now it was his job to smash this nest to pieces.

He heard the very familiar thundering sound of a bolter fire to the side and nodded to himself, it was going according to plan and they should be done within few moments. He stopped in front of a double door emblazoned with the aquila and checking for any obvious traps he kicked them open and entered into the room beyond. Inside there were several heretics with lasguns pointed at his form.

They fired at the only thing he noticed was some paint being scorched off the armor at which he smiled and pointed his boltgun in their direction and pressed the trigger. The gun lurched in his hands and spewed out a stream of bolts that felled first two heretics and injured the rest. Then he targeted the rest and mercilessly killed them, their blood and parts of tissues spraying the floor behind them.

He looked around and then his gaze landed on the bodies and the weapons they were clutching, something was off. "Did you find our target?" He asked, taping his vox.

The wave of negative answers made him pause and the worry to grow. "Skekke, they knew," he said and tapped the vox. "Squad Falchion, withdraw. Now!"

The moment he said those words he turned around and started to run towards the door of the complex, the moment he passed it and stopped in front of a Rhino the whole thing exploded. One moment there was an average looking complex of buildings and the next there was a fiery ball of an explosion that rocked the ground underneath soles of his boots. The blast wave was strong enough to send him flying and he stopped on the side of the Rhino. He stood up with a groan and scanned the area, instead of the complex there was a gaping hole.

He activated his vox and changed it to the command frequency of the company. "Captain Cornelius, those troublemakers knew about our coming and when we stormed they blew up the complex."

"We've noticed the explosion," Captain said after a moment. "Get your squad to the fortress and get them checked. The High Lord himself saw the explosion and wants culprits found so the whole chapter will hunt them."

Vibius at those words felt some sympathy for whatever organization was responsible for blowing up the building. If the High Lord wanted them caught it was going to be done with the best scouts being diverted to find them and later strike teams in Terminator Armors would gut out any hideout found.

He shook his head, boarded the Rhino and with his squad inside started to travel back towards the fortress.

o-0-o

Harry was dozing off when the vox speaker creaked, getting his attention and the words said froze blood in his veins. "Code Red was declared, prepare for a rough ride and evasive maneuvers," pilot said. "There were explosions in Shangri-La and we suspect that they can have missiles that can damage us. Strap in and stay calm."

"You heard the pilot," Scipio said as he walked between their seats. "Do what he said as we don't want to pick up your splintered skull when you get thrown into the ceiling because you didn't strap in."

Harry could feel that the Sargeant wasn't joking and did as he was told, seconds passed and he was glad that he did it as the Thunderhawk suddenly dropped a lot and made an unexpected roll, throwing around everything that wasn't bolted down or properly secured. Harry felt his stomach attempt to rebel, but he managed to get it under control and focused on counting numbers in his head.

The rest of the journey passed in similar conditions with their transport moving in all directions, slowing down, accelerating and making wild maneuvers that made Harry's stomach try to rebel. Somehow he managed to keep it under control and he was glad when the gunship finally landed.

"Get up, runts," Scipio bellowed as the ramp lowered and revealed outside world. "Sitting on your ass period is over, now's the time for training."

Harry groaned as he got up and made few wobbly steps as he tried to check if they would support his weight after the crazy ride they got. Once confident he walked towards the ramp and down it, onto a large clearing with several more Thunderhawks already on the ground or landing. Beyond them he could see a complex of stone and wooden buildings that much to his surprise had thatched roofs. Around the whole thing was a dense forest with a large lake barely visible in the distance.

"Looks lovely," Aeneas said. "Like paradise."

"Or like hell," Harry said and shrugged. "We both learned about those lions which pelts Praetorians use as cloaks."

Scipio didn't even bother to comment, he just looked at them and they crumbled. "Follow me."

o-0-o

 **A/N – I feel generous so I decided to expand upon some things about the chapter and their realm. First chapter, its organization and so on.**

 **In theory it is ten Regiments or Chapters, each thousand warriors strong and made out of ten companies. That's the theory as instead of other chapters they keep the same recruitment quota at all times, so the number of warriors is closer to eleven or twelve thousand as they have more newcomers than they have open spots, while it irks the Inquisition it also makes dropping below combat strength a hard task. First company in each chapter is the most experienced one and usually leads assaults on the enemy lines, also scouts are usually drawn from its numbers. Terminator Armors are things in the usage of which are trained all warriors that served for more than ten years, however unless in dire need, such as massed planetary assault onto heavily defended positions no more than ten or twenty companies will use them.**

 **Titles, Chapter Master is called High Lord and he is also High Lord of the Fifteen Worlds and governs them in the name of the Emperor. Leader of the 1** **st** **Chapter is always called Lord and he is Lord of Shangri-La and is expected to take the position of the High Lord if current occupant of the position dies.**

 **Techmarines, Chaplains, Apothecaries, Librarians answer to the High Lord who assigns them as needed and when necessary. For them are used Codex titles and rules as even if they don't obey it to the letter, they use it as a guidance.**

 **A rather interesting thing from the past that still exists in the chapter are Praetorians, a unit that protects and accompanies on the field of battle High Lord and Centurions. When staying in relative peace that doesn't require the whole chapter to deploy they fulfill mostly ceremonial duties. They aren't counted among the numbers of any company and are a unit answering directly to the High Lord, they are led by the Champion of the Chapter who has a title of the First Praetorian. Their gear is Tartaros Pattern Terminator Armor, a halberd/glaive and a storm bolter, over their armors they wear lion pelts.**

 **Aspirants after the completion of their training are assigned to a tactical squad of the tenth company and are deployed to relatively low risk tasks so that they can learn and gain experience without being shot to pieces.**

 **Fifteen Worlds of Creed – a large stellar empire carved out by the chapter at the dawn of history, their rights to it are confirmed by edicts of the Emperor and Lord Commander of the Imperium. It is located in the Ultima Segmentum, almost on the border of the Imperium and almost touching the sphere of influence of the Tau Empire.**

 **Composition:**

 **Shangri-La – Civilized World, Chapter Homeworld, Capital world.**

 **Phoenicia and Hephaestus – Forge Worlds of Adeptus Mechanicus supplying the armies of the realm. Forge Masters of the also swear fealty to the High Lord and if they prove to be incompetent they usually get swiftly removed by a bullet to the head or some more direct means.**

 **Lithios, Cuanus – Death Worlds, training grounds and recruits sources for the chapter.**

 **Rus, Shambala, Atlantis, Argea, Camulus – Civilized Worlds**

 **Marduk, Svarog, Gamma Epsilon – Agri Worlds**

 **Alpha Rho – Feudal World**

 **Nemea – Knight World**

 **Because of housing chapter Homeworld and providing it with a steady supply of recruits it doesn't need to maintain IG regiments, it still does. They are trained to the very best standards possible and have the best gear Mechanicus can be convinced to make. Their name is Thunder Legion of Shangri-La and usually they accompany the chapter into the warzone, providing it with an armored hammer needed to smash enemy lines and to win major battles.**

 **It is a discipline, prideful unit, by some even called arrogant that employs massed armored assaults and mechanized warfare, combined with lightning fast strikes in places where nobody expected them to be. Standard gear is a carapace armor and a hotshot laser, their colors are gold and purple. Due to the close ties with the chapter they tend to get whatever they want from Mechanicus as long as it is a reasonable request.**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N – The beginning of the training and a rather scary and painful episode in Harry's life. For those that hate large collection of data at the bottom of the chapter, I think it is one of the last ones where it will show up in such obscene amounts.**

 **o-0-o**

Harry looked around the clearing as they followed the Sergeant Scipio out of the Thunderhawk and noticed that there were several hundred more Aspirants, their groups also led by Creeds, though some were by Marines with a skull as a faceplate of their helmet. It looked as if recruitment needs of the chapter were huge as even as they walked more and more Thunderhawks were landing and releasing their cargo of Aspirants, supplies and Creeds.

"Welcome to the Training Camp Lion," Scipio said as he turned to look at them. "One of the nine camps where such runts as you are trained to be the future of the chapter. You will live, eat, train and bleed here as I and a cadre of Sergeants will try to teach you some basic skills all of you need to become a Creed. While when choosing potential candidates we check you for compatibility with gene-seed, it isn't hundred percent accurate check, so now you will face a whole list of tests."

They all groaned, their bodies and minds already abused by the Choosing all of them passed in the morning and since then none of them had much rest. Yet Scipio seemed not to care about this and gave them a look that made most of them crumble. "Form into four columns," he barked. "And make them even!"

Harry jumped up at the voice and with the rest of the group they frantically tried to form four even columns. It took them a moment, but when the Sergeant passed directly in front of them he didn't yell at anybody or didn't make any very insulting comment.

"That's passable," he commented. "But then, you're runts that still are used to living in a comfortable house, with food served when they want and no need to do anything."

Harry noticed Aeneas ball his fists and be ready to pounce onto the Sergeant, so he quickly grasped shoulder of his friend and made them look into each other's eyes. Harry's green meeting with Aeneas violet. "Don't. You. Dare. He is playing with us," Harry hissed and shook his friend.

Aeneas snapped out of his anger and nodded, quickly calming and taking his proper place in the column. "Thanks," he whispered.

"Since it seems that you can form a column, I suppose we can take you to the place where you will pass the tests," Scipio said stopping in front of them. "Follow me and keep those columns even. Also, no talking and stay silent or I will rip the tongue of one to talk out of their mouth and feed it to them."

They paled, fear of the Sergeant becoming a thing inside of their mind, then they nodded and quickly followed the Sergeant across the whole complex and to a sizeable building at the very end of it. In front of the building Sergeant Scipio turned and gave them a look. "You enter in tens, one leaves and second enters, do it fast as we don't have the whole day to waste on you passing one examination."

Harry gulped when he realized that he was somehow at the front of the group and he didn't have any way of delaying the thing. So he braced himself and entered into the building, inside he found a long corridor with five doors on each side and a Chapter Serf sitting behind a desk directly in front of him.

"Name?" The Serf asked.

"Hadrian of the House of Julia," Harry said.

"Age?"

"Fourteen."

"Very well," the Serf said and scribbled few things on a piece of paper in front of him. "Room number one," he said and handed Harry a thin manilla folder. "Give that to the Apothecary."

Harry took the folder and walked past the desk and walked towards the room with a large number one painted on its door. Before he rapped his knuckles against the wood he heard the Serf say. "Next one and for the love of the Emperor, hurry!"

He pushed it out of his mind and rapped his knuckles against the hard wood of the door, before pushing them open and stepping inside. He wasn't quite sure what he would found there, however the thing he found turned out to be a surprisingly mundane, it was a an examination room with an Apothecary standing in the middle of it and looking at the door and Harry. Much to Harry's surprise he didn't have a helmet cover his head and instead showed it with the sides completely shaven and a wide strip of hair running down the middle and ending in a short ponytail.

"Sit down," the Apothecary said gently indicating the bed and chuckling lightly. "Most people freaks out at the idea of this thing, while we only need to collect blood samples and check your body. And give me the folder you got from the Serf."

Harry nodded, some stress leaving his body and it was then when he realized that the Apothecary said those words intentionally, to relax him and make him less tensed and more relaxed. He sat down on the bed and waited for the Apothecary to speak.

"Your last checkup didn't reveal any flaws of your body or hidden mutations and showed that you are generally healthy and workout a lot," the Apothecary said and sent Harry a look. "Undress to your underwear and stand up."

He did as he was told and then he saw the Apothecary pick up some diagnostic device and move it over his body, as it was passing above his skin he felt a strange tickling sensation that almost made him laugh.

"They were right, hundred and seventy centimeters tall, sixty-two kilos of weight, perfect health and muscles developed from plenty of working out," the Apothecary said, placing the device away.

"Is it good?" Harry asked cautiously.

The Apothecary laughed, his voice deep and rumbling. "Is it good? You're one of the best Aspirants I have ever seen. So you have nothing to fear about." The Apothecary reached for a syringe and looked at Harry. "Extend your right arm."

Harry extended his right arm and then seconds later he felt the needle pierce his skin and he could see the syringe fill with his blood. The Apothecary pulled it out and handed him a piece of gauze. "Keep it pressed and it will stop bleeding in few seconds," he explained before inserting the sample into a machine. "Let's see if you're compatible with the gene-seed of our Primarch."

Harry kept the gauze pressed against his arm and watched the hololith display on which two double helixes of DNA appeared, then he noticed several parts of each being highlighted and finally the Apothecary nodded to himself. "Perfect, wholly compatible with the gene-seed which shouldn't cause any undesired mutations."

Harry let out a breath of relief and the Apothecary smiled at this.

"Gather your clothes and get back to your unit," he said and Harry nodded, quickly dressing and walking out of the room.

When he walked out of the room he spotted a small group standing by the Sargeant and he joined them, curious what would be next. As he looked at the faces of his peers he realized that he didn't know well anybody excluding Aeneas as the rest of his friends dropped out during the Choosing. He wasn't all too inclined on starting new friendships, so he instead focused on looking around and trying to memorize the layout of the place.

From what he saw there were ten long buildings that looked like barracks and if he had to guess he would say that they would be the place where they were going to live for the next couple of years. They were forming a circle focused on two large buildings, which he couldn't see whole and was just able to see parts of them. Yet from what he was seeing he felt that he could make a pretty decent guess of what was their purpose, after all not many buildings had a large collection of stone chimneys growing from their back. While the second one was more of a challenge, any doubts that Harry had about it were gone when he noticed and felt clouds of stream.

"So no showers for the barracks, just the communal ones," he muttered before taking one more look around.

He quickly noticed a very basic arena for training martial arts as it was basically a patch of ground marked with a white line and filled with sand. Then his gaze was drawn to a firing range not that far from the arena, it was a simple one with no fancy targets to which he was used when going to a firing range with his dear cousin who decided that if he was going to try to be a Creed he shouldn't make a fool out of himself and learn basic skills prior to trying to survive the Choosing.

"Since all of you are back," Sergeant Scipio said with a drawl. "Form into the columns and do it fast." He gave them a look and nodded. "Follow me."

They walked to another building, this one much to Harry's surprise was wholly built out of stone and there were visible plasteel reinforcements. The only access inside was a metal gate with a pair of Creeds standing on guard outside of it.

"The armory and storage," Scipio explained and nodded to the Marines that stepped aside and opened the gates. "Inside you will be issued your gear for the whole period of your basic training and you will hand in all of your possessions. While doing that you will receive a tattoo marking you as members of the chapter as well as haircut so that you look like soldiers, not some idiots."

They entered the building and Harry immediately felt cool hair wash over them, making their breaths condense into a fine mist as they followed the Sergeant who led them deeper into the complex. They passed by several massive plasteel doors before entering a room that was filled with various bags, crates, tables and several other things as well as few scores of the Serfs.

"Undress, hand in your clothes, get a tattoo, a haircut and receive your new clothes and gear," Scipio barked and indicates several tables where the Serfs waited. "They will make those tattoos and give you your gear and clothes."

Harry blushed at the idea of undressing in front of everybody, but a quick look sent towards the Sergeant made him realize that if he was not going to comply he would be forced to do so. He managed to find somewhat private spot and did it as quickly as he could before rolling his clothes into a bundle and walking with them to one of the Serfs.

"Throw them into the chest and sit down," the Serf said, indicating a simple chair and a chest on the floor to the side.

Harry did as he was told and the moment he was comfortably seated he felt the Serf grasp his arm and then wipe the shoulder area with something that left a stinging sensation behind. "Don't move," the Serf said and Harry looked at him. "If it is supposed to look like a sign of the chapter I need you to be still."

Harry nodded and steeling himself ignored the feeling of the needles burying themselves in his shoulder and leaving behind miniscule amounts of black ink. When the Serf was done Harry glanced at his shoulder and saw a head of an eagle with two lightning bolts behind it.

"Raptor Imperialis," the Serf explained, seeing confusion and curiosity in Harry's eyes. "The very first symbol of the Imperium before it was replaced with the aquila. Why do we have it as our symbol, it's not my duty to tell you, but bear it with pride and honor."

Harry nodded and looked at the Serf who approached him with a simple razor, with which he quickly and efficiently shaved most of Harry's head bald, leaving only a wide strip of short hair running down the middle. Once it was done, he motioned for Harry to get up and handed him a bag with everything he would need and a bundle of fresh clothes to put them on now. Harry quickly dressed, hiding his nudity and enjoying how comfortable the clothes felt on his body before he gave them a cursory look. They were purple, in the color of the chapter, with a wide golden trim along the edges and the Raptor proudly displayed above his heart.

Harry ran his hand across the side of his head and felt weirdly at the feeling of his hand sliding over the smooth skin. For last few years he had longish hair, minus few accidents when they were a bit burned, and now he had almost no hair on his head. Holding the bag with the gear that should suffice for his whole training he walked to the Sergeant and tried to hold back a chuckle when he saw Aeneas with most of his mane gone.

"I'll murder you for that," Aeneas growled when Harry started to chuckle. "Not that you look much better."

Harry scowled, but he soon realized that Aeneas was right and there was also the Sergeant looking at them with some disapproval. In a manner that suggested shutting up or losing teeth. Harry closed his mouth with a click before looking around and trying to gauge how long it would take for everybody else to get done.

"Finally you look like proper Aspirants should look," Scipio commented once the whole group was shaven and in their new clothes. "Follow me and remember about columns!"

They formed up behind the Sergeant who led them onto a large open ground where other groups were also herded by their Creeds, of whom there was quite a lot more waiting in the distance, to the sides of a wooden stage on which one of them with a weird skull faceplate stood.

"All of you were chosen by us to be the future of the chapter, the next generation of its warriors. Some of you are sons of our current Marines and wanted to continue their family duty, some were chosen during the Choosing and the rest when we saw you survive and be the best during a battle between tribes," the Creed said.

The moment those words were said they started to look angrily at each other as if suddenly everybody discovered that people around them weren't their friends. While children of the Marines spent their time with the inhabitants of the city and relations between them were usually either positively neutral or warm and Harry could remember one or two of his friends being a son of a Creed. The relations between those that lived in the cities and the tribes that lived in the wilderness were at best cold and usually were hostile. So now when the Creed mentioned the fact everybody started to growl, send dangerous looks around and prepare for combat.

"However your past and where you lived doesn't matter to us," the Creed quickly said. "We prepared a list of teams to which you will be assigned and in which you will live and train and you will have members from all of the three groups. Infighting and murders of teammates will result in the immediate execution of the whole team and banning families of the guilty ones from submitting their sons for the Choosing for the next five generations."

At those words everybody gulped in fear, not only would they die for that offense, but also their family would be shamed for centuries to come. It also made Harry realize that from now on they wouldn't get any preferential treatment and all would be treated equally harshly, no matter whom were their parents or how important they were. In the eyes of the chapter all of them that were gathered on the field were just potential future Marines that needed to be shaped and molded into something the chapter could accept.

"Good that you fear the consequences of those actions," the Creed said and reached for a scroll handed to him by one of the Sergeants. "We will group you into teams based on the structure of the chapter, we will divide you into teams of ten and ten of those teams will share one building to live in. Each team has a leader chosen by us and he is supposed to control his teammates and ensure that they behave. Further, ten teams that share the building need to maintain it and care for it together, how you do it, we won't care, what we care is that you do it and that you do it together. Finally the last thing, for your failures and achievements we will reward units, not just the person that did it. When I will read your team and your names of the list, you will walk towards the Sargeant that will step forward and motion for you to join him." The Creed unrolled the scroll and started to read from it, Harry mostly muted it out until it was the turn of his team. "Team Iota Epsilon, leader Hadrian of the House of Julia, Aeneas Trojan, Cato Thunderhammer, Cornelius of the House of Junia, Horus Blackfire, Titus Morningstar, Perseus Cassius, Publius of the House of Sulla, Remus Heracleid, Asculus Falconer."

Harry stepped out of the crowd and looked for their Sergeant, he noticed Scipio step out of the group of the Creed, so he walked to the somewhat familiar Sergeant and looked at the rest of the team. Aeneas was the sole familiar face and was grinning like a madman, Cato, Horus, Titus and Asculus were obviously former tribesmen, their bodies covered in a faint net of scars collected during combat and all shared the same brown hair, so common among the tribes. The only way to really recognize them was their body shape and eyes, Cato was the tallest one out of them, easily the height of Harry, if not taller, was quite bulky and possessed striking blue eyes. Horus and Titus were roughly the same size and shared the same kind of a body, thin and reminding Harry a lot of Aeneas, the only good way to tell them apart was an ugly scar running across Horus' face and eyes. Horus had deep green ones, while Titus had warm chocolate ones. Finally Asculus was the shortest out of the four, a head shorter than Harry. He had blond hair and dark, almost coal black eyes that shone with grim determination and almost directly over one of them passed a long scar.

The rest of the group was somewhat familiar to Harry, so he didn't pay that much attention to the details as he knew them at least from passing or from hanging out with their relatives. Cornelius and Publius were both tall, with green eyes and fiery red hair, making him wonder how he was going to tell them apart. Perseus and Cassius were quite short, yet he knew that brawling with them ended with him being sprawled on the ground, while they didn't seem even winded. Perseus had black hair and grey eyes while Cassius silver hair and violet eyes.

"I see that so far we didn't lost anybody," Scipio dryly said when all of them gathered around him. "I'm your Sergeant, I will teach you basic skills, discipline you if need be and try to ensure that you don't do something so incredibly stupid that you die. Also during the more practical and hands-on training I will be with you and will watch out for dangers that will elude your attention or will be too well hidden for you to spot them."

They nodded and looked expectantly at him.

"I suppose that I should show you where is your room and where are the facilties that you will use and after that we will train and see how useless you are," he said with a drawl. "Though don't expect me to babysit you more than that."

Harry hesitantly raised his hand into the air to get the attention of the Sargeant.

"Yes, Aspirant Julia?" Scipio asked, his tone harsh, yet showing some patience.

"What about any meal, Sergeant, we didn't have any since the Choosing have started?"

At the change of an expression on the Sergeant's face Harry should have known something bad was coming. "Meal? Once we do everything planned for this day," Scipio said roughly. "So don't complain and actually move so that you get it sooner."

They nodded and followed Scipio across the camp to one of the barracks and he opened for them door with letters Iota and Epsilon painted on. They entered and looked around, it was a rather large room with five bunk beds and at the foot of each two chests for their gear and in the middle of it was a large round open fireplace with a couple of large logs placed inside and burning merrily. Finally the last thing that Harry noticed were wooden door placed in one of the walls and if he was right it was going to lead to some toilet.

"That's your room," Scipio said once they looked around. "Drop your bags inside and we will start turning you into something that might be the next generation of warriors to fill the ranks of the chapter."

o-0-o

Brutus picked up a goblet with wine and looked at its content before looking at the garden below the terrace on which he was sitting. He smiled when he saw his oldest children play, one thing that he loved in being a Creed instead of being a member of any other chapter of Space Marines was the fact that they were allowed to have families and a greater amount of freedom.

"You think about you cousin?" someone asked and he smiled when he looked at his lover, she was a beautiful person with flowing black hair and a petite body. "He passed his Choosing today, hasn't he?"

"Aye," Brutus said and looked at the horizon and towards the fortress and its white walls that were visible from anywhere in the city. "He should be fine and I know that he is more than ready, certainly more than I was at his age, but..."

"How badly did you bend the rules?" she asked with an amused smile. "As I know that as a Captain you can bend them into a pretzel and walk away whistling."

"Julia...," Brutus said with a sigh. "I didn't bend them, all I did was to show him few things he could have learned on his own. If I wanted to bend them he would avoid the Camp Lion and the cheerful Sergeant he will have a pleasure of meeting."

"What's so special about this camp?" she asked. "As excluding the fact that we need to send there plenty of mines and barbed wire I don't recall anything out of ordinary in the ledgers."

"Charming wildlife around it," Brutus said and she arched an eyebrow. "While the camp was named Lion to honor Lion El'Johnson, wildlife around it isn't the most friendly. When I was training there we lost a squad on the first day."

"What happened?"

"A pair of lions," Brutus said and shook his head. "I still remember those torn bodies, the lions came when it was dusk and we didn't see that far. It was before we had Sergeants for each squad and instead one had three or four. So before he and several others got there it was too late to do much. One wasn't quite killed by the lions, but he would have died in few hours, so he was put down."

"What kind of lions can do it?" she asked, managing to control fear and shock, after being a Serf of the chapter for last dozen or so years she got used to the horrors of the galaxy. But even she had some limits of things she could accept.

"The same one that the Praetorians hunt to be accepted into the ranks," Brutus said and added after a moment. "When I hunted one I felt like it was going to kill me, not the other way around."

"So the mines and barbed wire?"

"To stop the beasts from coming before they can erect some proper fortifications around the camp. Probably half of them will be digging out the place for the wall and the second will be getting wood for it while being watched over by most of the Sergeants present," Brutus said and added after a moment. "Good thing is that the camp is on the border of the hunting grounds of those lions and they should be gone in few weeks."

"So hopefully he won't be turned into a meal of a lion?"

"Shouldn't be," Brutus nodded and got up, watching carefully not to smash with his head into the ceiling. "Which reminds me that I have my duties that cannot wait."

"When you will be back?"

"Few days," he said and reached for his armor. "Massive drills with the Thunder Legion are coming and my company will be dropped to secure the landing zone for further troops to land."

"Don't get killed," Julia said and wrapped her hands around his massive form. "I and our sons will miss you."

"I won't," he said and quickly dressed into his power armor before walking out of the house and to the fortress.

o-0-o

Harry looked at the arena and later at their Sergeant that stood in the middle of it, gone was his armor and in its place his body was covered in similar clothes to what they wore. The only sign of his rank was a black badge on his shoulder with a fiery sword and a knife in a scabbard attached to the belt. "Are we supposed to duel you, Sergeant?"

"Wasn't I clear enough?" Scipio asked.

"You were, Sergeant," Harry said. "But with all due respect, we don't have a chance at beating you."

"Indeed," Scipio nodded. "What I want to see is if any of you knows anything."

Harry smiled at those words and stepped onto the sands of the arena, sudden burst of confidence and bravery flowing through his body. He hurled himself at the Sergeant, not paying any attention to the way he did it and slammed into the form of the older warrior, who just grunted and stopped him in place.

"Not bad," Scipio muttered, lightly punching him in the chest and sending backwards . "You know that you need to get close so that you can hit me."

Harry nodded and then through his mind flashed memories from one of the times when his cousin showed him basic moves of the martial art developed by the chapter. He cautiously moved forward, closer to Scipio and sent a quick punch towards his head. The moment he saw Scipio focus on the fist he sent another, this one aimed at the neck.

"Better," the Sergeant nodded before he avoided one strike and caught the second with his fist. "But too slow and too obvious to read. At least you know something useful and it's chapter's main style."

Harry wanted to say something when a fist connected with his head and he lost consciousness as his body slammed against the sand of the arena. When he woke up he was propped against one of the nearby stones and Horus was sitting to his side.

"I see that you're awake," he said. "Sergeant said that you would wake up soon." Horus reached to the side and gave him a bottle with water. "Drink it, slowly."

Harry took the water and sipped some before looking at Horus. "Why are you helping me? Isn't it that the tribes and cities hate each other?"

"I learned a thing or two about patching wounds from a healer from my tribe and while the tribes and the cities hate each other. The healer beat into my head that in the eyes of healers allegiance means nothing and that we need to help everybody that needs help," Horus said and shrugged. "Besides, you're the leader and the one that so far managed to impress the boss."

"So what did I miss?"

"Three more making fools out of themselves," Horus said and Harry looked at him. "They didn't managed to even impress the Sergeant. I saw warriors fight and die and those three would die in the first second of any serious combat."

Harry nodded and shifted to get a slightly more comfortable as he watched Aeneas try to take on Scipio. "That will hurt," he muttered. "Aeneas never was that great when we had brawls and my cousin tried to teach us a thing or two."

Horus gave Harry a look and then looked at Aeneas. "I wouldn't be so sure," he said carefully. "He might have something inside that will make him fight like a lion and impress the Sargeant."

"If you say so," Harry said and then he felt his mouth drop to the ground when Aeneas dodged a punch from the Sergeant and slammed his fist into one of the joints. "He might be good."

"Aye," Horus agreed. "Question is how good, but that we will see."

Before Harry managed to say a word, a loud crack broke the silence and they looked towards the arena where Aeneas laid sprawled on the sand and Scipio stood over his form.

"Get up," Horus said, patting Harry's shoulder. "We need to drag him out of the arena and doing it alone isn't a fun thing."

Harry grumbled, but got up and once he felt that his body wouldn't betray him he walked with Horus to the limp form of Aeneas and together they dragged him out of the arena while the Sergeant looked for another poor soul to fight him. Once they dragged Aeneas out of the arena they watched the rest of the duels, most of which ended after few quick blows exchanged between the Sergeant and the Aspirant.

The moment all of them were awake and sporting various kinds of bruises the Sargeant looked at them in a way that made all of them form up into a line in front of him. Not even a command was needed for them to guess what was needed from them.

Scipio passed in front of them and gave them a look. "Good, at least you llearned something and can think," he said and stopped directly in front of the middle of their line. "Now that I'm done with beating you into the ground and know how much or how little you know I think it is a time for a meal for you."

Harry felt some kind of a relief when he heard those words as he felt his stomach clench and demand to he filled. As a group they passed through the whole complex and entered one of the buildings surrounded by a circle of barracks for them to live in. As they entered the dining hall Harry licked his lips as a smell of venison and other food flowed towards him. He truly was hungry and when he felt this smell he realized how badly he needed food. They sat down at one of the tables and the moment plates with food carried by the Serfs appeared on the table they dug into their meal. They ate quickly and in silence, not exchanging many words and mostly focused on sating their hunger.

Once the meal was over they made their way to their room and after quickly changing into sleeping clothes and adding a couple logs to the open fireplace all of them fell asleep on their bunks, too tired to try to talk with each other or do anything else. As Harry laid on his bed he felt incredible, he didn't believe that he was going to pass the Choosing, yet it was true and he was on his way to become a Space Marine. In the faint glow of the fireplace he could see other members of his team fall asleep, their bodies wrapped in the thin blankets they were given, yet even if it was thin Harry felt comfortably warm under it. It was then when he realized that at the same moment his family was probably celebrating the fact that he was to be one of the Creeds and that he would bring them honor and prestige.

 **o-0-o**

 **A/N – More lore on the chapter.**

 **They specialize in massed Terminator assaults and planetary combat, as such the armories of the chapter has much more Land Raiders and Spartans than it is suggested in the Codex Astartes. Land Speeders of various kinds are a rare thing in the armory, while they exist, they are rarities as they don't fit the style of combat. Instead the chapter uses a much higher amount of Sicarans and its variants as well as Predators to bolster their armored fist of Terminators and their carriers.**

 **This tactic also favors high percentage of Centurions most of which is outfitted for ranged combat, supporting the spearhead before the Thunderhawks can deliver their vehicles onto the ground. Speaking about Thunderhawks, while most of them is dedicated to one role or another, a large percentage of normal ones has installed mag-locks that allow them to take a smaller load of Marines and a Rhino based vehicle.**

 **Rhino based for those that don't know much about Warhammer means – Rhino(basic APC), Razorback(basic IFV, basically a Rhino with a gun in top and less space for troops), Vindicator(a siege engine, most of the space took by a Demolisher Cannon and a large shield up front), Whirlwind(an mlrs system), Sabre Tank Hunter(typical antitank vehicle) and last, but not least Predator(a tank based on a chassis of Rhino). It's generally the most popular and versatile chassis in the usage of the Imperium and there are few more models not listed here, but they're not used by the Space Marines.**

 **Going back to the chapter and lore. A very common and a very well designed tactic of it is to cooperate with the Thunder Legion and launch a quick teleporters and drop pods assault to clear the landing and seconds later unload companies of Marines from Thunderhawks and whole ships of Thunder Legion and Knights and Titans. The point of the tactic is to quickly deploy a massive armored fist and punch a hole through the enemy lines. It is usually heralded by a devastating orbital bombardment that is enough to destroy most of the position enemy has around landing zone.**

 **Organization part two:**

 **Normally chapter is supposed to field ten companies, but a closer to the truth statement would be between eleven and in extreme cases fifteen. Those additional ones are reserve forces for the chapter and its training squads that in rare cases can be used to bolster the lines. Some always stays on homeworld or other planets of the realm, in case of an annihilation of the chapter, but some is always deployed with the forces of the chapter.**

 **Seniority of the chapters, generally speaking the smaller the number of the chapter the more power belongs to its captains and centurion. While not always true, Centurion of the third can override the centurion of the fifth. Doing so is avoided unless needed, but can happen.**

 **Organization of the chapter, while it is more or less Codex compliant in terms of size, that's the only similarity. In the supposed table of organization there are no Reserve companies and all of them are combined arms, there is almost no scout company, the job being handed to those that show an aptitude for hunting and tracking or are the most experienced and know how to get it done. Second huge difference is a position of the First Captain, he is always leader of the 1** **st** **Company and he is the right hand of the Centurion and executes the plans formulated before the battle. If the Centurion dies in combat the First Captain until the campaign is finished is de facto commander of the unit.**

 **Choosing Centurions and Captains, there are two routes for both, one, they are chosen from the ranks of Praetorians, senior Sergeants and Captains in case of the Chapter. Second, commander of a less prestigious unit wants to move up, say a Captain of the 11** **th** **Company wants to move to the position of the Captain of the 10** **th** **Company. As long as it is accepted by other officers of the unit he can do so.**

 **Training:**

 **Aspirants are treated more gently than other chapters, but the chapter can afford it as it has a stable intake every single year and with the number it has it can afford to keep them for longer training and doing lower risk missions. Out of the Harry's year that has around thousand, to eleven hundred Aspirants around six hundred will graduate and become the next generation of warriors, five hundred that drops out will be mostly given positions as Serfs or the chapters or trained to be crews of its ships. It is on one hand gentle, but it is also preceded by a quite demanding Choosing that quickly weeds out those too weak or not determined enough.**

 **Relations with other Imperial organizations:**

 **Astra Militarum and Imperial Navy – cordial and both organizations don't mind working alongside the Creeds, mainly due to the fact that most of Captains and Centurions will actively cooperate with their allies and unless their hand is forced they won't act on their own even if they can.**

 **Adeptus Mechanicus – weird, on one hand Mechanicus is jealous that chapter doesn't give away any of their patterns of armament, but on the other it is willing to work as they can easily enlist help of at least a company for an expedition into the unknown to recover new STCs.**

 **Ministorum – cold war that tends to explode into an open violence with actual battles and skirmishes. They want to introduce the Cult into the realm of the chapter and each time they approach the chapter with such an offer they get send back with a very blunt negative answer. At the same time the chapter openly persecutes any religious organizations that show up in their domain and doesn't care whom they worship.**

 **Astartes – those more zealous ones avoid the Creeds like hell, those more reasonable ones are willing to fight alongside them. Particularly warm bonds they foster with the Space Wolves, Dark Angels and Ultramarines, though the last one mainly due to the fact that their realms almost border each other and are forced to cooperate to catch pirates, raids of orks and other unwanted guests.**

 **Inquisition – both avoid contact with each other and generally stay out of each other's hair, trying to avoid conflicts unless impossible and then solving them as painlessly as possible. The only branch of the Inquisition that's in love with the chapter is Ordo Hereticus as Creeds will deal with any religious organization they are pointed at.**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N – Another chapter and more training of Harry as well as tensions are building up for a major internal conflict inside of the Imperium, one that won't end good for everybody involved.**

 **o-0-o**

Harry slept like a baby when his mind registered somewhere in the background a loud noise of a horn and quickly pushed it aside as the body wanted rest and didn't want to be bothered with such a nonsense. However he didn't get much more as moments later the Sergeant entered the room with a hose and the next thing that Harry felt was a stream of freezing water slamming into his body. He jumped up and on his bed and looked towards the entrance of the room where the Sergeant was standing with a hose. "You didn't hear the wake up call!" he yelled and then gave one look their whole room. "You have three minutes to get ready and meet me outside of the building."

All of them scrambled, their moves quick and frantic as they tried to get out of their beds and clothes, while at the same time putting on their training ones. How did it happened Harry couldn't recall, but he knew that they managed to do it in the assigned time and form a line in front of the Sergeant. They were yawning and trying not to fall asleep, but somehow they did it. As Harry looked around he could see that other teams were doing the same thing and that the sun was slowly rising above the horizon, making him realize that they maybe had six hours of sleep.

"Grab the shovels and picks from the pile behind me!" Scipio yelled "And follow me!"

They did as they were told, even if most of them were puzzled by the command they learned that testing their Sergeant was a foolish idea so they grabbed the tools and followed Scipio who walked to the edge of the forest where along the ground was running a bright red string and to its sides in even distances were two blue ones.

"You see the red string?" He asked, stopping right in front of it.

"Yes, Sergeant."

"That's the middle of a moat that needs to surround the whole camp," he said in a matter-of-fact voice. "Start digging from here and move to your right, dig two feet deep for now. Other teams will move to the left pile what you dig out behind you."

Harry looked at the shovel he was holding, then his gaze darted to the ground and then he let out a loud sigh before walking to a blue string and pushing his shovel into the soft soil and starting to dig. He expected something more exciting from their training than just this.

"I didn't think we would be workers for the chapter," Aeneas said as he joined him to the side. "I thought we would have more interesting and enjoyable training than digging a moat."

Harry gave his friend a look before throwing the heap of soil he had on his shovel behind. "Thank you for stating the obvious," he said and gave a look the forest in front of them. "Tho the forest in front of us makes me wonder if there's no deeper sense to it."

"There is," Cato said. "This forest and generally most of the forests on the planet are deadly. My tribe lived on the border of one and there was not a single day when something not attacked us, if we don't want to fight off animals that see us as their meals we need protection."

"Indeed," Scipio said, silently appearing behind them. "You dig your share of the moat and you will have a meal and go to get some wood for the wall to keep the guests outside and away from you and your squishy bodies."

Harry paled a bit and then looked at the ground in front of him, shoving the shovel into the soil he started to dig more energetically and was kinda grateful for the fact that it was still early and the sun wasn't as high as it was going to be in a couple of hours. Then it would be a scorching source of heat able to burn the skin to a beautiful shade of red.

Next few hours they spent digging a part of the moat and as the time passed Harry felt sweat start to pour down his back. He threw the last load of soil onto the pile that started to form some kind of a wall and looked at the hole in which he was standing. It certainly now looked like a moat, a shallow one, but still a moat and soon they would be done with their section of it. He glanced at the rest of the team and much to his surprise there was almost no infighting, sure he could see some competition and rivalry, but no outright hostility. Apparently the more or less open threat of rewarding the whole team with an execution worked like a bucket of cold water dumped onto the heads of the more rash people.

"That's enough for now," the Sergeant said as he looked at the hole. "Get out and it's time for a meal for you, after that we go for the wood for the wall."

Harry climbed out of the hole and it was when he was truly able to see how big of a task was ahead of them, even with thousand or so people it was going to take some time and it was also when he noticed that not all of them were working on fortifying the camp. Something like one third was training in martial arts under keen watch of several Sergeants that mercilessly corrected their mistakes. He winced when he saw one of the Aspirants being yelled at for a mistake he could have avoided.

"That's harsh," he commented.

"Aye," Horus agreed and added after a moment. "But also necessary, during war a mistake may cost you your life and getting yelled at is a safer thing that getting gutted out."

"How is it that you know so much?" Aeneas asked.

"With the tribes you grow up fast," Horus said quietly and indicated Cato, Titus, Asculus and himself. "We all know how to fight, hunt and survive since we were ten or so. I don't want to undermine your position as a leader, but you need a strong right hand that can rein in more rash ones. And one thing I can promise you is that there will be rash ones that will try to test you or murder each other."

Harry gulped at the consequences of the infighting, he still remembered that threat of an execution and the way Scipio stated disciplining them suggested something nasty. He gave Horus a long look and then switched his gaze to Aeneas. "There's something in you two that I trust you," he said. "If you can keep them from murdering each other, I won't mind the two of you keeping them under control."

"I think we can manage that," Aeneas slowly said. "That is we don't murder each other."

"We won't," Horus said and looked at Aeneas. "As long as you don't attack me, I won't do the same."

Aeneas nodded and the two of them more or less slipped into positions slightly behind him, as if trying to show that he was a leader and they were his bodyguards. Harry smiled at this sign and as they entered the mess hall he saw the Sergeant Scipio nod at him before disappearing into the distance.

o-0-o

Scipio entered the room and noticed that most of the Sergeants and the few Apothecaries that remained at camp were present and it seemed as if they waited for him. He took his place among the Sergeants and remained silent, waiting for someone to begin the meeting.

"The High Lord wants them be ready for combat as soon as possible," one of the Apothecaries said, placing a data slate on the table that was in the middle of the room. "Gangs and zealots are getting dangerously active and someone needs to curb them also they almost murdered squad Falchion when they were checking one of the suspected nests."

"What had happened?" one of the Sergeants asked. "Falchion is one of the better squads and for this mission they should have been reinforced."

"Someone rigged the whole quarter around the nest and when they stormed the nest and almost caught the bait it blew up," the Apothecary said. "Official death toll is in several hundred and mainly because none of the buildings was full. We officially don't know who did it, but the suspicions point in the direction of Frateris Militia and through them to the Ecclesiarchy."

Scipio nodded and quickly went through a chain of calming exercises. "So they once again want to test us and see if they can introduce the Cult onto our lands."

"By blowing up a quarter of the city?" one of the younger Sergeants asked.

"In few weeks we will see agents standing at street corners claiming that it was a deed of the Ruinous Powers or of the Emperor punishing us for not worshipping him as a God," the Apothecary snorted.

"And then when we start to strike at them they will summon support of some of the Sororitas and whoever their masters can convince," Scipio finished. "So we will need to convince them to leave us alone and the Ecclesiarchy will cause a lot of fuss because of it and probably some representative of the High Lords will show up to check what's going on."

"However that can wait," the Apothecary said and looked over the faces of Sergeants. "Can you make some fighting force out of them in two months?"

"We should be able to do so," Scipio nodded. "It won't be a level with which I'm content, but gangs and our merry hands of zealots should provide them with the necessary experience and give some lessons we cannot beat into them and it's not like we will lack opportunities for training later on."

"That is if we can keep them from murdering each other," one of the Sergeants muttered. "I already had few brawls and the usual pulling of hair, kicking in the groin and so on."

The Apothecary smiled at that, smiled in a way that suggested pain and suffering. "Lord Traian will be visiting the camp in the next few days or weeks, depending on the time he has available and it was always a custom for one visiting the camp to hand out rewards and punishments."

"And he will happily remind those morons of their rightful place in the pecking order," that Sergeant finished and smiled. "That should shake few of them and scare the rest into compliance."

"Aye," the Apothecary nodded. "Lord Traian tends to have a profound impact on new Aspirants."

Scipio just smiled in agreement before the talk wandered towards other topics.

o-0-o

Brutus donned his power armor and checked that everything was working smoothly and that all of its systems were activated before putting on his helmet and picking up his bolt rifle and checking that it was ready for duty. Then he walked down the hall of the armory and towards the section of it filled with close combat weapons and picked a power sword and a harness for it that allowed him to sling it across his back and have it in easy reach. Once he completed arming himself he walked out of the armory and nodded to the Sergeant that waited for him.

"Everything ready?"

"Yes, Captain," the Sergeant nodded slipping into a position to his side. "Whole company is armed and armored and awaits orders to board the drop pods and be launched. We also received reinforcements in form of two Centurion squads that are outfitted for long ranged combat."

Brutus nodded and the two of them walked to the drop pod bay, when they entered the long corridor filled with access points to various drop pods red lights started to flash on the ceiling as howling sirens announced that the ship was entering the orbit for the launch and they needed to take their places. Brutus entered his pod and nodded to the members of his squad and took his place before locking the doors and activating the systems of it. Seconds later he felt the whole pod shake and shudder as its locks were released and it started to accelerate out of the ship and towards the planet below them.

o-0-o

Confessor Jonas Carrow walked through the tunnels constructed by the faithful of the Imperial Cult on one of the uninhabited planets within Shangri-La system. He was glad that there were always those that listened to the true religion and were willing to spread it in all places, no matter the wishes of the rules of them. He was about to enter one of the shrines built inside of the complex when he felt and heard a series of heavy thumps, as if objects were slamming into the ground above them.

He saw a frantic member of Frateris Militia run past him, a lasgun in hand. "What's going on, son?"

"Heretical Marines and Guard is landing," the zealot said. "Those noise we heard are drop pods slamming into the ground."

Carrow nodded and walked into the shrine, his eyes swiping over the beautiful mosaics showing the Emperor and his sons, the Primarchs, when the roof of the shrine shattered and through it slammed in a drop pod. He looked at the color scheme that covered the vehicle and his lips curled into a sneer. It was one of the pods belonging to the heretical chapter that should have been long ago declared Excommunicate Traitoris, yet somehow it was able to survive.

Before he could do anything more doors of the pod slammed open and revealed cargo of their Marines, Marines that were armed in a way he had never seen and had armors too smooth and too alien to be true. The Marines looked around in confusion, trying to estimate where they were, but when they focused on Carrow all of their doubts were gone. Before he had a chance to react Sergeant activated his vox and was frantically speaking into it, while the rest of the squad moved towards Carrow and pinned him against the wall.

o-0-o

Brutus tapped his vox when he heard the bit of data reported by one of the Sergeants of his company, then his brows furrowed and a growl left his throat. "What do you say, Sergeant?"

"We found an underground complex," the Sergeant reported. "The pod that carried us punched through the roof of it and stopped inside of some kind of a chapel. We also have a priest of the Ecclesiarchy and there are zealots inside of the complex."

"Drop a beacon inside of the chapel or whatever that is," Brutus ordered and switched the vox to the frequency of the whole company. "Converge on the beacon, everything else doesn't matter. We found a nest of zealots that needs cleansing."

He heard a chorus of acknowledgements from Sergeants and Centurions, once he was sure that it was understood he switched the channel to one reserved for the use in case of emergencies and quickly reported what was happening. The moment he did it he felt that life for someone was about to get from somewhat decent to hell. He glanced at the sky and almost immediately saw hundreds of fiery shapes hurl themselves through the atmosphere and towards the ground. At this he smiled, now that was a thing that would make someone shit in fear.

Checking location of the beacon he started to run towards it, his transhuman body preparing for the combat to come, numbing down pain receptors, releasing hormones and pushing aside any and all of the things that could distract him. He spotted the hole punched by the drop pod and jumped before landing on bent knees and smiling when he spotted a member of the Ecclesiarchy pinned by few of his Marines.

Now, that was going to be fun, he thought with serenity as he advanced forward, his boots crunching stone and debris as he approached the priest. He could see the priest pale and shrink, but he only smiled and prepared a list of questions to be asked.

o-0-o

Harry smiled with satisfaction as his machete easily chopped away branches and twigs of the last tree they needed to haul back to the camp. He straightened himself and wiping sweat of his brow he looked at the rest of his team, Horus and Aeneas were removing last few branches that were still attached to the trunk, while the rest of it was measuring it and cutting into pieces they could haul back and were useful. In the distance he could see silent form of Sergeant Scipio, in his hands a weird bolter and to his sides Sergeants of other teams that were also cutting down this forest. It looked as if something could come hurling out of the forest and attack them.

"Hopefully that's the last one," Aeneas said as he looked at Harry. "That's the tenth tree we have cut and they said ten trees."

Harry nodded and let his eyes swept over the swathed of land littered with tree stumps that were an effect of them erecting the fortifications around their camp. He already could see some parts of the wall starting to take shape and from what the Sergeant said it would be done within the next week or so. The one thing to which Harry didn't look forward was an idea of filling the space between two rings of wood with some of the soil they dug out for the moat as it was going to be an event harder and less pleasant task than what they were doing.

He shook his head and finished cleaning the tree from any and all of the branches that previously avoided his attention and once done with it, he slipped the machete into a scabbard on his back and looked at the rest of his team that was cutting the tree into more manageable chunks of wood that would form the wall. He saw Titus and Cato finish cutting through the trunk and once they placed the saw away he walked towards them and looked at the trunk.

"Let's get it to the wall," he said and looked at Horus. "Mind helping us?"

Horus only nodded and quickly joined them and in four they managed to lift the chunk of wood of the ground and placing it on their shoulders to support its weight on their bodies they made their way towards the wall and with a groan of exertion placed it inside of a thin trench, just wide enough to let it slip comfortably into the ground and stay in the intended position. They made such a trip for nine more times before all of the pieces of the last tree were placed in the ground and branches and twigs were added onto an ever growing pile of fuel. Once that was done they were gathered by the Sergeants of their teams and led onto one of the bigger arenas prepared for martial arts training.

"Martial arts and the knowledge how to fight with your bare fists is a thing that every Creed needs to know," one of the Sergeants said, facing their whole group. "We won't let any of you advance to more advanced training before you are at least proficient in this art. Pair up with people from other teams and we will start."

Harry nodded and prepared for pain and suffering as he knew that it would be brutal, brutal and really, really painful. He turned to face a member of other team and lightly nodded at him to show him some respect and then slipped into a position beaten into his head by dozens of hours of training from his older cousin.

He felt a shiver of fear pass down his spine when he felt a Sergeant stalk past him and then proceed to berate an Aspirant that stood to Harry's side and looked as if he was not going to show any respect to his partner. It was a chilling moment that reminded Harry that even if his team seemed to behave around each other and wasn't keen on infighting, at least yet. There were groups that hated each other guts and nothing would stop them from murdering someone.

o-0-o

Several hours later they were finally allowed some rest and Harry slammed onto his bed, his whole body screaming in pain as even with a large break for a meal between training sessions and a hasty shower once everything was over he felt as if he didn't get any moment of break for the whole day. He slammed onto his bunk and sat up, his back propped against the wall of the building.

"I think that if we are to coexist and work as a team we should learn some things about each other," he said and everybody looked at him. "I mean that it is better to know weaknesses and strengths of your teammates before we get any exercise when we need to work together and performance of the whole unit will he graded."

He expected comments about his words, but the only thing he got was Cornelius clearing his throat. "As much as I would like to disagree, Hadrian's right," he said. "Those of us that have their kin in the ranks of the chapter will only confirm that."

"Aye," Perseus said and shrugged at the looks. "I have an uncle as one of Creeds and he always told me that teamwork was going to be a key to survive the training. Also the fact that we share the dorm speaks volumes about their goals."

"They want the teams to grow close," Aeneas added. "Grow close and care about each other, so that we aren't a bunch of berserkers."

"True," Harry said and paused for a moment to gather his thoughts. "I suppose that I should start since I'm the one chosen to be the leader of the team. Not that I really wanted it." He shrugged and looked at them, their faces suddenly wholly focused on him and what he was going to say. "Name is Hadrian of the House of Julia, though friends call me Harry, use whichever one you want to. I'm an adopted member of the House and I have three siblings, all of them younger than I am. Likes, as Aeneas probably mentioned earlier, I love water, diving and swimming, as well as science and history. Hate or dislike? Not many things really. I was chosen to be one of the Aspirants the way they are chosen inside of the cities, that is by passing a series of tests and challenges."

o-0-o

Scipio stopped outside of the room and smiled when he heard those words, if things were going to head this way with his team he would have a lot easier job when they would be issued bolt rifles. If there was no cohesion or at least grudging respect for teammates he would most likely lose few due to accidents, now he could be sure they would somewhat behave and avoid damaging other members of their team.

o-0-o

Harry finished speaking and moved to a more comfortable position against the wall, before grinning at Aeneas. "Your turn," he said.

"What can I say?" Aeneas mused. "As you probably know I'm Aeneas Trojan, also chosen in the same Choosing as our beloved leader. Don't have too many likes or dislikes and nobody from my family as far as I can tell was or is a Creed."

"What's with those House of something?" Asculus asked.

"How old the family is," Cornelius quietly said. "Those that came here first and were among the founders of the city as well as source of the first recruits for the chapter can use the House of something. Most of them provided recruits to the chapter for generations and their name is revered. Anyways, I suppose now is my turn."

What followed was over an hour of them talking about their likes, dislikes and so on, at the end of which Harry had a more or less somewhat good idea of the team in which he landed. He suspected that those from the tribes were chosen after some battle or skirmish and their tales only confirmed it. All of them took part in skirmishes, showed skill with whatever weapons they had and were noticed by the Chaplains and Apothecaries. However that wasn't the nicest surprise he had on that night, that title fell onto all of them more or less accepting the fact that he was their leader and if they wanted to survive and not get executed they needed to work together.

o-0-o

A hail of bullets screamed through the air and Brutus crouched behind a piece of concrete that was his cover. He waited for it to fly past his head and then carefully moved from behind it and aiming his bolter at the place from where they came he fired a short, controlled burst and moments later two of the zealots were missing their heads and the third one had a gaping hole in his chest.

"Where is our support?" he asked, tapping his vox. "I need it now."

"Inbound."

He wanted to curse the damned person when he saw a bright flash of light and out of it stepped ten Terminators, ten Praetorians and the Centurion of his regiment. Brutus smiled viciously behind his helmet's vox grill and moved forward to join his leader who already was aiming plasma canon at one of the positions where zealots were hiding.

o-0-o

Two weeks of heavy work and training had passed and Harry could already feel the changes they had on his body, he felt getting stronger, faster, more muscular and much more determined to survive the training. Each day he went to bed with his whole body sore and muscles aching, yet he also felt some weird kind of satisfaction.

He helped to place the last of the pieces of wood into its position in the circle that formed the wall and wiped his brow from the sweat that poured all over his body. The job was finally done and according to their Sergeant they were about to start something much more interesting and useful for their future.

He was about to look for Scipio when the Sergeant appeared in his sight. "Follow me," Scipio said.

Harry nodded and took from one of the other Aspirants a bucket that was filled with something that was supposed to be cold water and drunk it quickly, only to discover that the sun made it warm. He grimaced, but his thirst was a bigger problem and once he drunk enough he handed it back and jogged after the Sergeant.

"Where are we going?" Aeneas asked.

"I know as much as you do," Harry said and shrugged. "We'll learn soon enough."

They didn't need to wait too long to see what was the reason as they were led to a firing range that Harry spotted on the first day. Scipio motioned for them to gather around him and a large crate marked with the Raptor.

"This is a bolt rifle," he said, pulling out of the crate a weird weapon. "Fires rocket propelled ammunition and is a standard weapon of the chapter. Before we even let you get anywhere close to the transformation we expect you to be proficient with them. Take one and we will begin."

Harry took one of the weapons and looked at it, the first thing he discovered was that it was heavy, autoguns were lighter and nimbler. This was a huge, heavy piece of metal, yet far more finely crafted than crude autoguns.

"It is heavy," Scipio said and they looked at him. "With an autogun or a laser you won't stop an ork before it murders you, with this, one shot is enough. Anyways, take positions and we will see how good you are."

Harry grasped the rifle he was given and took position at the end of the lane, before relaxing his muscles and looked at Scipio who proceeded to explain to them how to use this weapon safely. Once he did it, he put on his helmet and moved away, Harry smiled at it, remembering the time when his cousin took him for one of the first times to the firing range. Apparently all more experienced Marines seemed to have a deep distrust for abilities of their charges.

Harry pressed the stock of the weapon against his arm and aiming at the target visible in the distance he pressed the trigger. The kick he felt slam into his body was a thing that surprised him, he knew this weapon was a beast, but he didn't expect it to kick so hard. Even more shocking was the unholy noise made by it and the stream of fire that left the barrel. However when he looked at the target he smiled when he saw a neat hole punched straight through it.

"Not bad," Scipio said as he approached Harry. "You fired guns before?"

"Not bolters," Harry said and added. "Autoguns mainly."

"Similar kind of a weapon," Scipio said. "Nine more shots, I want to see if it was a lucky shot or you truly know how to do it."

Harry nodded and aimed at the target before pressing the trigger nine more times, releasing nine more bullets that punched nine more perfectly round holes. He looked at the Sergeant who nodded in approval.

"It isn't as bad as I thought it will be," Scipio said as he passed behind them. "Three know what they do, while the rest will learn through practice." He then indicated the crate. "Each grab ten magazines and start firing.

o-0-o

Brutus looked around and shook his head wondering how all of it grew unnoticed, the complex which they stormed revealed to be a massive set of chambers, corridors, chapels and temples as well as dozens of armories and training yards. He gave one more look the chamber in which he was with dismembered and torn bodies of Frateris Militia laying in pools of their own blood and clutching various weapons. He was about to walk out of the room when he heard the sound of boots crunching the stone and concrete, looking in that direction he noticed a pair of Praetorians in normal power armor walk ahead of two more people. The group entered the room and the Praetorians stepped to the sides, revealing that behind them was the First Captain of his chapter and Lord Traian.

"Lord Traian, First Captain," Brutus said. "I didn't expect to see you."

"It was your company that discovered the complex," Traian said and indicated the bodies around them. "It was also the one that fought valiantly and found something that disturbs us."

"If I may ask, what it is?"

"An astropathic message," the First Captain Augustus said. "To whom, we don't know, all we know is that it was a call for help and from the interrogation of the astropath we know that it was sent to whoever was supposed to receive it."

"It's not like a list of possible receivers is huge," Brutus said and his brows furrowed. "Black Templars, Sororitas or some idiotic part of the Inquisition that has issues with us. Could be also some part of the Ecclesiarchy that sent those idiots."

"Indeed," Traian said and looked at Brutus. "In a week time there will be a war council and you are invited to it as the one that discovered the thing. However before that, I will be touring the camps where our Aspirants train and watch them, as you are aware I can choose whoever I want to accompany me and my Praetorians. And this year you are one of those that I choose."

Brutus paused, almost unable to speak for a moment, but then he nodded and bowed his head slightly. "It will be an honor, Lord Traian."

Traian nodded and all of them left the room, their job was done and now was the time to resume the activities so rudely interrupted by this discovery.

o-0-o

A massive person clad in an ancient suit of golden power armor walked down the halls of the Inner Palace, their boots hitting the stone floor at a measured pace, in their hand a guardian spear. They stopped in front of one of the statues of Primarchs and then removed the helmet covering their face and revealing a perfectly sculpted head with white cropped hair.

o-0-o

 **A/N – Hopefully one last massive rant, bolters and their derivatives. As much as I hate Cawl and the shit with Primaris, or at least the way they are introduced, what he did with bolters is a thing that in any sensible military would be done in few months or years. Bolter is a decent weapon, but doesn't work great in all of the various conditions that exist on the battlefield and what here happened is Techmarines, Veterans and Tactical Marines trying to find things they disliked about their guns and how to improve them. Effect of them doing said thing is a wide family of bolter weapons as well as a far easier and faster customization.**

 **The most common ones are still bolters, bolt pistol, heavy bolters and storm bolters, but other variants of this weapon also exist. Mainly rifles, longer barrel, more punching power, in case of the version issued to the Aspirants, smaller caliber 0.5, instead of 0.75, and a scope. Carbines for Assault Marines and much larger magazines for almost every version in usage, mainly for dealing with Ork or Tyranid infestation where amount of bullets matters far more than how precise they are.**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N – Another chapter that took a lot longer than I expected to write, Harry's training will take few more, but it will be also a lot more interesting than what it was until this point.**

 **o-0-o**

Harry straightened his back as a Thunderhawk slowed down and prepared for landing, he didn't know why all of the Aspirants were chased onto the large open field where supplies were dumped every few days by Thunderhawks and other gunships. However now it was something more than just it as squinting his eyes he could see rich artwork adorn the craft, marking it as something more than just a normal gunship.

"Attention!" Sergeants standing in front of groups of Aspirants roared and Harry slipped into the position, not even thinking about it. Three weeks at the camp made him not even think when slipping into this position.

The Thunderhawk with a roar of its engines landed and the ramp at the front of it opened, revealing a pair of Emperor's Creeds in Terminator armors, with lion pelts draped over them. They walked forward and behind them Harry could see several more Marines in various kinds of armor, even with his limited knowledge of the chapter and what various kinds of armor and helmets meant he could tell they were important. One directly behind the Terminators had a long plume of hair running down the middle of his helmet and his armor was covered in burnished silver and gold engravings that made it shine in the sunlight and if Harry had any doubts that it was a high ranking officer, a purple cloak dispelled those. Behind him were six Marines in elaborately adorned armors and Harry's heart stopped for a second when he recognized one of them.

"What did you see, a ghost?" Horus quietly asked.

Harry shook his head and focused his eyes on a Marine with a pelt of a lion draped over his armor and faceplate of his helmet shaped to resemble a pair of golden wings. "Just a certain person I didn't expect to see, that's all."

"Your cousin?" Asculus asked and Harry gave the boy a look. "You didn't mention anybody else from your family being one of them."

"Aye," Harry said and straightened himself. "I just didn't expect to see him here."

Any more talks were stopped by the harsh glares coming from their Sergeants that seemed twitchy as past them walked a column of chapter officers and their bodyguards. The whole group walked to a stage from which the teams were announced and one in the purple cloak stepped onto it and removed helmet from his head, revealing an aristocratic face, red eyes and a mane of silver hair.

"At ease," he said and all of them relaxed, glad not to stand at attention. "I'm Lord Traian, second-in-command of the chapter and one overseeing recruitment and training of new Creeds. You are all Aspirants of the chapter right now, people that might be allowed to be pass the final trials and be transformed into the next generation of warriors. If you think that you are special because of being here, you're wrong, you're here because we decided to choose you and there's nothing special in you. Work hard and show commitment to the cause and we will let you become our new warriors, if you fail, let's just say that your fate won't be pleasant."

At those words they gulped, yet there was something in Traian that made him sound in a way that made them sure of their abilities and chances to succeed. What followed next was over an hour long speech in which their superior berated those that caused scuffle and troubles for their teammates, but also praised those that showed their abilities and diligence in training. Once that was finally over they were allowed some rest and given free time and an opportunity to approach those scary Marines that came with him.

o-0-o

Brutus smiled behind his helmet as he saw data about his cousin appear in sight, he gave it a quick look and nodded to himself before pulling the helmet off his head and spotting Harry walk to him. "Aspirant Julia," he said, using the proper and formal way of addressing Aspirants.

Harry gave him a dirty look, but then nodded. "Captain Aurelian," he said and asked with a sigh. "Can we get over those formalities?"

Brutus chuckled and ruffled Harry's hair. "For this one time," he said and gave Harry a long look. "But don't expect any preferential treatment from me or me pulling any strings for you." He paused and chuckled. "Besides, you do just fine and you should succeed on your own, also team leader, not bad runt."

Harry huffed and glared at Brutus.

"Don't huff," Brutus chuckled and placed his hand on Harry's shoulder. "Work hard, focus on the task and you will be a Marine in no time. Team leaders are rarely chosen because of accident, so use the opportunity and make a good impression on the Sergeant."

Harry smiled at those. "So why are you here?"

"Luck, baby cousin, luck and that's all," Brutus said and nodded in the direction of a Sergeant that loomed in the distance. "Also the time is up and you need to get back to training."

Harry nodded and walked back to the Sergeant, the moment he was away Brutus put on his helmet and activated the vox. "I see that you are as scary as you used to be all of those years ago when I trained here," he said on a channel his armor established with Scipio.

"I try my hardest, Captain," Scipio said with a chuckle. "Also someone needs to push them to the limits and beyond them. Tho your cousin is an Aspirant that will easily become an Astartes. I didn't have a chance to see how he will behave under fire, but he excels at training we hurl at him."

"I saw it," Brutus said and added after a moment. "He is better than I was?"

"You're both similar," Scipio said and Brutus could hear the Sergeant frown. "But it is still too early to be sure who's the better one. But this night should show it."

Brutus nodded and cut the channel before walking towards the group with which he came here, he bowed to Lord Traian and all of them boarded the Thunderhawk that silently climbed into the sky and started the return journey.

o-0-o

Harry looked around curiously as his team and several more teams were herded by the Sergeants towards the armory in front of which stood dozens of massive crates and several stands full of bolter rifles with which they became rather intimate over past few days. Sergeants motioned for them closer and Serfs that appeared out of nowhere started to issue them some weird kind of armor and help to put it on. At the weight of which Harry gasped as it was heavy and he felt as if he was about to topple over, yet as he looked at the purple pauldron with an image of a golden Raptor Imperialis he felt pride.

It was an armor made out of several large plates of composites and metal, yet he felt surprisingly comfortable in it, also after a few seconds of getting used to it he felt that he could freely move in it. The last thing that he received from the Serf was a helmet with a pair of eagle wings that formed its visor and where were cut slits for eyes to see through. As he put it on he was surprised by how big his field of vision was, he expected it to be severely limited, yet here it was almost as if he didn't have it on his head.

"There are thirty teams of you here," one of the Sergeants said, getting their attention. "We will divide you into two groups, fifteen each. One team will be the defending team, second attacker, defender will have a banner with chapters sign, attackers need to get it and hold for say thirty minutes, defenders need to hold for an hour and a half. We don't want all of you murdering each other, at least not yet, so you won't use live ammunition, but one that will just cause pain upon impact."

At the word pain Harry gulped as pain as understood by those that trained them was usually knock out and leave sore for the next couple of hour. However that thought didn't last long inside of his mind and was soon replaced by the determination to succeed and prove himself, he took the gun he was issued and the magazines and then looked at the rest of his team, in the dim light of the evening all of them looked grim and determined to prove themselves.

What followed next was a blur and later Harry couldn't recall what happened until the moment he was running through the forest his team to his sides and slightly behind, jumping over the stream he entered into a slide and stopped right behind a rock as several projectiles zipped past his head. He looked around and noticed Aeneas and Cato hide behind one of the massive redwood trees to his right, while the remaining seven were crouched behind a pile of rocks.

"They're behind the trees," Horus said, indicating a small cluster of pine trees. "They hid there moments ago."

Harry nodded and stuck out as small bit of his head as possible from behind the rock and squinting his eyes he tried to see where they were their opponents and where they were their allies. He knew they were supposed to have some support from few teams that were moving behind them, but question was where they were. He was about to activate the vox and ask when a familiar noise of bolter fire erupted right behind them and was followed by even more to the sides.

Harry glanced at Horus whom he came to trust when it came to tactics and combat training ans after a nod from the older boy he got up and slowly walked from behind cover. He could see those in front of them scramble in panic as they realized that they were surrounded or soon to be. He stopped his advance for a second, aimed his bolter gun at the back of one of those that were running away and pressed the trigger before watching a burst of fire leave his weapon, soon followed by a scream of pain from one hit.

Harry ignored that and pressed forward, stepping over the body and firing at more that were retreating, he could see some try to return fire, but most of it flew high and was inaccurate. They advanced almost to the camp of defenders when they met more determined defense that actually pinned them down and forced to duck for cover. Harry stepped over a root when a hail of bullets flew from behind felled trees in front of them and slammed into his armor and grazing his side before continuing to move across Aeneas.

Harry let out a loud shout as he felt his whole body become set on fire and he slammed onto the ground, out in the open before Horus and Cato pulled him behind some cover, while Cornelius and Asculus did the same for Aeneas.

"Ignore the pain, it will pass," Horus said and rummaged through a bag he carried. "Take it, it should make it more bearable."

Harry grunted through his clenched teeth and took the jar from Horus before opening it and smearing the black goo that was inside over spots that burned him. It wasn't a big improvement, but he was able to move more freely, albeit in great pain. "What is it?"

"A salve I made few days ago," Horus said and shrugged. "Painkiller that I learned how to make, but that can wait. Now we have the bigger problem."

Harry shifted and rolled so that he was laying on his belly and was crawled forward, he stuck out his head and the bolter before looking through the sight of his weapon and firing a quick burst into open place where he saw movement. He smiled when he heard a gasped moan of pain, followed by a person dropping onto the ground. He glanced to the sides and nodded when the rest of his team was doing the same thing as he did.

"Push forward," his vox crackled. "They're breaking and most is unable to fight."

Harry smiled and crawled over the roots and started to slowly advance, stopping from time to time to fire the bolter at the shapes that he saw run away. He looked to the sides and saw that more teams were joining the advance and now it was a wide line of them pushing forward and stepping over bodies of knocked out defenders.

He could feel that they were winning and that nothing would stop them now, he smiled when he saw leader of one of other teams tear the banner from the pole on which it was hung and lift that piece of cloth into the air. At this Harry let out a cry of triumph and joy, they did it and defending team was knocked out and the match was won.

Their celebrations were interrupted by a Sergeant descending on two tails of fire. "Good job, the exercise is over. Celebrate all you want, tomorrow you have free until second meal and after that your training will intensify."

All of them hollered in joy and happiness as they made their way out of the forest, praise from the Sergeant and adrenaline of the combat keeping them in high mood and making them show it.

o-0-o

Brutus entered the war council chamber and looked around at the gathered people, all of the Centurions, First Captains, the First Praetorian, Apothecary, Chaplain, Librarian and the High Lord were there, as were representatives of Mechanicus. He could see some of them send looks his way, but most only nodded in acceptance, if someone was invited, then there was a good reason for that. He walked towards Lord Traian who stood to the side of the High Lord and took his place there, awaiting for the council to start, however he muted out all of the formalities and opening formulas as those were said for the sake of formality and not much else.

"The Ecclesiarchy is once again on the move," Lord Traian said and at the same time in the middle of the room flickered alive a large map of the galaxy. "The zealots Captain Aurelian discovered were supplied, trained and supported by the Frateris Militia."

"Which doesn't suggest anything," a Magos Dominus from Phoenicia said. "It just says that those fanatics supported our zealots."

"Normally that would be the case, but not this time," Brutus cut in. "We found a whole astropathic choir that managed to send messages before we disabled it and there was also a surprisingly large number of priests of the Ecclesiarchy."

"That changes matters," the Magos said. "Do we know who will help them?"

"We don't have that knowledge," High Lord said and everybody looked at him. "However we know that the message was sent in the direction of Ophelia system. Before our Librarians could further interrogate Astropaths we found in that complex all of them were murdered or commited a suicide."

"If I may, I should be able to provide more knowledge," a Librarian said, a nimbus of unearthly power around him. "I interrogated those we caught personally and managed to pry few more things out of their minds, one, this message was an urgent cry of help, two they used a code that's normally used only by the Ecclesiarchy to encrypt the message it wants to send, three among all of their thoughts those that caught by attention was a red rose and a black cross on a white field."

"Thank you, Lord Librarian," Traian said and manipulated the display in front of them. "We know that the tensions will escale and in few months or years we will come under an assault from a war of faith. Based on what we managed to gather forces that the Ecclesiarchy could hope to muster against our chapter are at the moment scattered across the whole Imperium and tied in wars that cannot be abandoned and need to be brought to an end."

"How much time we have?" First Captain Drusus of the 1st Chapter asked.

"We estimate that it will take them between fifteen and thirty standard months to assemble their forces and another four to deploy them," High Lord Aurelian said and they focused on him. "It is far away, but I don't want us to be surprised and I want to be ready for them coming at us, will Mechanicus support us?"

"We will and we will deploy God-Machines if the situation will be dire enough," Magii Dominus said. "But we don't know how the wider organization will behave, we will send a recommendation to Mars to support you and stop any attempts at eradicating the chapter. However what decisions will be made is a thing we don't know."

Brutus nodded to himself in understanding, Mechanicus were a weird organization with all of their forgeworlds being autonomous and independent from each other, yet at the same time listening to Mars. His mind focused on tactics and strategy, thinking about possible enemies to fight and foes plotting against the chapter. As parts of his mind did it he also paid much attention to the war council, he knew that there was more to that invitation than just being a good warrior, Centurions had a lot to say when it came to promotions and it felt to him like one of those events and the council was some kind of a trial.

o-0-o

Harry felt the time pass quickly, two months were a blur and now he stood on board of a Thunderhawk that flew towards the city of Shangri-La. He was dressed in his carapace armor, a sword and shield strapped across his back, a bolter rifle in hands and a helmet hanging from his belt. He had troubles believing it, but today was the day when he would be sworn in as a member of the chapter and the true training would begin shortly after that.

The Thunderhawk touched down and the ramp slammed onto the ground revealing outside world to them, as he looked around Harry had troubles believing that they were on one of the parade grounds outside of the chapter fortress. However that wasn't a thing that truly shocked him, this title fell to the whole chapter standing in perfect formations with banners of units proudly displayed and lazily flapping in the wind. In his peripheral vision he could see massive crowd of the inhabitants of the city watching it, however that occupied his mind for parts of a second as once the group that disembarked from the Thunderhawk formed into an even block twenty people wide and ten deep they walked through a corridor between blocks of Creeds and to the throne of the High Lord. There they stopped and kneeled in front of their future liege lord and commander.

The High Lord stood up and walked towards them, stopping right in front of the first rank. "All of you were the best of the best from this year group of Aspirants of the Emperor's Creed chapter and as such you are here to be sworn in as new Initiates of the chapter and if any of you have any doubts they can walk away now." After those words the High Lord paused and looked at their faces and their shaven heads that were lowered and focused on the marble tiles of the plaza. "Do you swear fealty and loyalty to the Imperium of Man and the Emperor of it?"

"We do!" Harry shouted with the rest of the group, their voices loud and clear.

"Do you swear fealty to the chapter, its commanders and rules?"

"We do!"

"Then rise and join ranks of your brothers as new members of the Emperor's Creed chapter," High Lord finished and at the same time they stood up before walking towards an open spot to the side of the youngest unit of the chapter.

What followed next was few more hours of celebrations and chapter rites before ending in a large feast held in the Great Hall of the fortress. Once that was done they were shown to their room which as at the camp were assigned to teams.

o-0-o

Scipio nodded when he saw his team enter the briefing room, all of them sleepy and still getting over the effect of the feasts. "We will spend two months in the city doing missions with the Arbites and Tactical Squads before going back to the Camp Lion for the rest of your training," he said and they looked at him. "You will be issued live ammunition for the missions and your performance during them will determine if you become full Astartes or not."

He could them quickly become serious, all of the good emotions from the celebrations and wine they were allowed to drink during it quickly being pushed aside. Even if they were young, several weeks of training was enough to make them mature beyond their age and hone ability to focus on moments notice.

"The first mission that's for you is, is a simple one," he said and activated a hologram projector located in the table, making a map of the whole city appear. He rotated it and indicated one of the poorer districts. "We know that one of the gangs has their facilities there, Arbites tried to crack it open, but failed. Our task is to get there, find all of the entry points, disable security systems, remove guard and help the Arbites and Tactical Squads in achieving their objectives." He let them comprehend it and then cleared his throat to get their attention. "Go to the armory and you will be issued bolt rifles, M45 Targeting Systems, a magazine of Stalker bolts for each of you, ten magazines of normal bolts, swords, shields and armors. Meet me in the vehicle bay in fifteen standard minutes."

He watched them leave and then nodded to himself, he also needed to get armed and armored as knowing their last luck with paying visit to those gangs it tended to get hairy, quickly. He shuddered as he remembered the time when he led team of current Captain Aurelian for a similar mission, it ended with Terminators crashing through the roof and providing cover for them to pull out of the mess. However if the kids were as good as he thought they were this should go smoothly.

 _And a cut, I'm nasty, I know, I know, but it is too good not to use it._

 **o-0-o**

 **A/N:**

 **Training rounds – they don't have the protection provided by a power armor and without it letting them play classic capture the flag would be stupid as by the end of the day they would lose perhaps 99% of sent into the exercise and that's a ratio they cannot accept. Bolts filled with poison that causes pain also makes them more resistant to pain later on and that's a thing they will need, quite badly. Those that are familiar with how implantation process goes will figure out what I mean.**

 **Armor – they use an armor similar to a carapace armor, but made out of better quality materials, custom fitted and providing more protection and flexibility than a carapace normally does. Helmets they wear cover their head, keeping most of the face revealed and over their eyes they have a visor shaped to resemble a pair of wings. It is made out of the same material as their armor and has encrypted vox and targeting systems that allow them to fully utilize them their long range firepower.**

 **Melee weapons – swords are based on chainswords, shields are normal ceramite and plasteel, won't stop a proper power weapon, but will protect against 99% of things they meet.**

 **M45 Targeting System – development of M40, used in conjunction with Stalker bolters and bolts, allows for a far greater accuracy at long ranges and Stalker bolts allow silent removal of targets or as silent as it is possible with firearms.**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N – Another chapter, I'm in the mood to write this story so you can expect plenty of updates here. As always read and review.**

 **o-0-o**

Scipio entered an armory that was reserved for chapter's veterans and paused before looking around and thinking what kind of a weapon he should take for the mission. Gangs were notorious for getting their hands on things they shouldn't have access to and it was better to be safe than sorry so with this in mind he walked towards section where were deposited various combi-weapons and other special guns that no normal soldier should get their hands on. He looked through them before picking up a bolter rifle with an underslung volkite charger, he never knew how Techmarines managed to combine the two, but they did it and somehow made charger more potent than usual at which he just smiled as he picked up the weapon and few large magazines for the bolter. He spent few more moments picking up weapons and by the end of it he picked up a plasma pistol as his secondary weapon and a power falchion as a close combat weapon. He knew it was probably an overkill, a massive one, but he didn't want to get killed on the mission because of some stupid gang member catching him off guard. Once he had everything he needed he put on his helmet and walked to the bay where his team should be by now.

o-0-o

Harry looked at the bolter rifle he was holding and it was now when he realized that soon they could be ordered to kill in the name of the Emperor or the chapter. He took the rest of the gear he was issued and placed his sword and a shield on the back of his armor, both of them easily slipping into their positions and then he put on his helmet that had a large plume of red hair in the middle.

He looked at the plume and then at the Master-At-Arms. "What's with that plume?"

"So that the team knows who's the leader," the Master-At-Arms said and explained. "While your Sergeant can override you at any moment, you're second in command. During training it didn't mattered, but here it matters."

Harry nodded and put on the helmet before letting the Master-At-Arms check if everything was in their proper places, including various pouches and bags attached to their armor that hid most of their supplies. Once that was done they walked out of the armory and to a vehicle bay that was filled to the brim with vehicles used by the chapter, they could see hundreds of Rhinos, Razorbacks, Predators and other vehicles waiting to be deployed.

Harry looked around and quickly noticed form of their Sergeant standing by one of the Rhinos and as a team they walked to Scipio who gave them a look and indicated the Rhino. "Get inside," he said.

They crawled inside and the first thing that Harry discovered was that it was uncomfortable, with not much space and if that it was not enough it was quite warm and soon sweat was pouring down their bodies. And on top of that their Sergeant squeezed inside, forcing them to push against each other to make space for his bigger frame and armor.

"It isn't as bad as when a Devastator squad is using it," the Sergeant said with a chuckle seeing their expressions. "Especially when each is carrying a plasma cannon and a power pack for it."

At this Harry chuckled a bit, but then he started to feel some weird nervousness, kind he never felt before and a quick look told him that he was not the only one that felt it. However before he was given too much time to ponder upon this subject the Rhino started to drive, making him focus on calming himself and checking all of the gear he had.

The trip was surprisingly uneventful and maybe after half an hour inside of that uncomfortable armored box they were allowed to exit it and look around. Place where they were dropped was a rather normal one district of the city, sure it was one of the poorer ones, but not the worst kind of slums and buildings were well-kept and there were no obvious signs of poverty.

"Looks normal," Harry said as he looked around. "Too normal even."

"Aye," Scipio nodded and indicated a large building on the other side of the district. "That's our target, but we won't approach it directly."

"No?" Aeneas asked. "Aren't we supposed to storm it."

"Think, please," Horus said with a tired sigh. "You come through the front entrance and everybody will know that you want something from them and that's bad." He then looked at the Sergeant. "The mission is about removing their eyes and ears, so we will probably need to find a proper perch somewhere high and close to the target."

"Indeed," Scipio nodded and smirked. "In fact the chapter found it for you, look at our target and then sixty meters to the left."

Harry followed the instructions and then his gaze landed on one of the massive complex utilized by the Administratum, he looked at it and then his gaze raced upwards trying to see how tall it was. As it reached the top he felt his knees becoming weak, it was maybe ninety meters tall and climbing that high even by stairs wasn't fun.

"Yes, that's the perch," Scipio said. "We have thirty minutes to get to the destination."

Harry shifted the gear on his back to a more comfortable position and then started the jog after the Sergeant who much to their surprise wasn't showing off his inhuman strength and speed, but actually was keeping their tempo. However that wasn't the thing that shocked Harry the most, that title fell to the fact that the Sergeant was much more focused and colder than he remembered the old Marine to be.

As they jogged through the district Harry noticed that people gave them looks full of respect and then moved aside, letting them pass undisturbed. He felt his confidence and pride swell at this, he now could understand why so many people wanted to become a member of the chapter, the admiration and respect given by ordinary citizens was impressive.

o-0-o

Sergeant Vibius took his place in a Thunderhawk and nodded to himself, over three squads of Sternguard and Vanguard Veterans and few Apothecaries in addition to his own Squad Falchion should be more than enough to crack open that stronghold and he knew that if need be he could call upon Arbites to give him numbers needed.

He inspected his gear and donning his helmet he activated his vox. "Thunder One, everybody's in."

"Roger that, Falchion One," he heard from the pilots.

He thought about the maps of the city and then added to it deployment of all of the Marines inside of it. He could see a group that was Scipio's Initiates enter their position and prepare. Now it was a matter of waiting for him and his detachment, Thunderhawks could spend in the air hours and that was with a full cargo of Marines and none of the three he had was full so they could be there for even longer, but that could spook their targets.

o-0-o

Harry caught his breath as they climbed last flight of stairs and stopped inside of an office that was going to be their perch from which they were going to watch the target. He saw Sergeant Scipio walk to one of the windows and open it before placing his gun on the window sill.

"This is your first such mission so I will be gentle with you," he said, removing his helmet. "Our target is a stronghold belonging to a gang that recently started to be very active in combat drugs and normal drugs trade as well as corruption of bureaucrats and we cannot tolerate it any longer. You won't be storming the place." At this their heads dropped. "This will be done by elements of the 1st Regiment as they have gear for the task, but what you will do is even more important." At this they looked at him. "Without you locating all of the sentries, defense systems and exists as well as eliminating the sentries they won't be able to attack the stronghold. You have time to an hour after dusk to find every single one, so get started."

Harry walked to a window, placed his gun against the wall, opened the window and pulled out the magnoculars he was issued and looked at their target. The mansion was a large one with six meters tall wall and behind it was a walkway for armed guards that he could spot. He increased the magnification and focused on the weapons they had.

"Sergeant, what kind of weapon they might have?" Harry asked and added. "It looks like a lasgun, yet it is different and they have some kind of a wire or conduit running from it to a backpack."

"A hotshot lasgun," Scipio said. "A more powerful version of a standard lasgun, also a standard issue weapon of the Thunder Legion. Not as powerful as a bolter rifles you have, but will pierce your armor from a close range."

Harry nodded and swept his eyes over the wall. "I can see ten of them on the wall," he said.

"There's one more pair," Asculus said. "Do you see that part of the wall covered by the main building?"

"Yes," Harry said.

"They are behind it."

Harry nodded and focused on the interior of the mansion, from the walls there was around five meters of clear space before another wall, this one a low one and connecting various buildings. There were four small and roughly rectangular buildings in the corners and on top of them he could see even more guards and between them was the last building, a massive spire that was maybe sixty meters tall.

"Four guards on each of those smaller buildings," Aeneas said. "Two man patrol along the lower wall and ten or so outside of the compound."

"That's worse than we expected it to be," Scipio said and added after a moment. "But we also plan to strike at night and there's a chance that some will return for the night."

"What are other options that are available to us, Sergeant?" Harry asked.

"A squad of Devastators and a unit of Scouts," Scipio said. "However I won't call them unless we really need them."

Harry muttered a couple of swear words under his breath and then focused on the task, trying to spot as many guards and hidden entry points as he could. Hours until the time of an attack dragged for them and felt like an eternity, making them finally decide on rotating and taking naps while some part of their group watched their target and made notes. However the moment it became dark all of them woke up and gathered around the Sergeant.

"It seems that they won't decrease the amount of guards which makes our assault a bit complicated, but it can be done," Scipio said and gave them a look. "Hadrian, you will take four with you and get as close to the stronghold as possible and upon my signal you will take out the goons outside. No bolters, just swords and knives as I want it done silently and even with Stalker rounds bolters aren't silent."

Harry grimly nodded and reached for a sword strapped across his back, he pulled it out of the scabbard and ran his finger along the blade of it that was made out of a row of teeth. It was a similar design to a standard Imperial design, but a much sleeker, lighter and designed for them. "I will do it," he said and his eyes flickered at the faces of the team. "Horus, Asculus, Cato, Titus you'll come with me." He then looked at Aeneas. "I want you to stay here and cover us."

They nodded and didn't speak, instead they looked at the Sergeant. "Good, the rest, I want you to take out guards on the buildings and inner wall, buildings first as they're higher and nobody looks upwards or downwards."

"What about the guards on the outer wall?" Aeneas asked. "They can still see that something is wrong."

Sergeant Scipio just nodded. "Hadrian, what are the available options?"

"They can be killed by the half of the team that's here," Harry said and scratched his chin. "They can be also killed by us by simply scaling the walls and attacking them with swords."

"How could we hope to scale this wall?" Cato asked. "That's a six meters tall wall."

"Good question," the Sergeant said and his eyes flickered to Harry. "What kind of a solution would you suggest?"

"It isn't a perfectly flat surface," Harry said and looked at the Sergeant who nodded. "So climbing it this way is easy, it's not the easiest task, but it can be done or we can use grappling hooks we were issued, however they carry a risk of us being spotted."

"Indeed," Sergeant Scipio said. "You have to climb it and do it silently, I advise against grappling hooks as you need to reveal yourself when launching one. Once that's done switch to the frequency I gave you in the Rhino and report to one with the call sign Falchion One that the mission is done, your call sign is Initiate Two. After that do wait for us to join you. Is everything clear? If yes, get going, you have ten minutes to get there."

o-0-o

Vibius watched the overlay displayed by his armor and nodded to himself, even if Scipio made them wait for ages before he commenced his part of the operation he could see reason behind the actions of the older warrior. He disabled the overlay and activated his vox. "Thunder One, can you enter hover close enough to the spire so that we can jump and assault the target?"

"Affirmative," the pilot said.

Vibius nodded and once again summoned map of the city and layout of the spire and then added few things to it and used his vox to transmit it. "I sent you a map and I want you to execute this manuaver at Epsilon Theta."

He heard the acknowledgement from the pilots and focused on his own task and watching as Initiates slowly approached the target.

o-0-o

Aeneas pressed his eye against the scope of his bolter rifle and aimed at the head of one of the guards that were walking on top of one of buildings. He calmed himself as he was taught and waited for a signal from the Sergeant.

"Now," Sergeant Scipio barked and Aeneas pressed the trigger, rifle lurched in his grip as it spit out a bolt and he followed it with his eyes. It flew through the air and thanks to his scope he could see it impact the head of the target and then pass right through it, in its wake a perfectly round tunnel.

Aeneas watched the body drop and then moved towards other targets that were there and waited for the next signal to fire as his whole body started to ache from the position in which he was.

o-0-o

"Go!" This single command that echoed across vox was more than enough to send adrenaline flowing through Harry's body. He activated the blade of his sword and once he heard a faint, buzzing noise of it working he slipped shield onto his left arm and charged across the street. He glanced to the sides and he could see that the rest of the team was keeping up with him and was also running.

The goons that were in front of them didn't notice them and kept walking along the wall and Harry just smiled at this. However it was not a pleasant, nor a friendly smile, it was one of a predator seeing its prey defenseless. He slammed into the first goon and pushed the blade of his weapon forward, he felt it meet resistance and heard the goon let out a soft, wheezing noise as his heart was pierced by the sword and then Harry twisted the sword in the wound as he was taught and pulled it out.

He felt blood splatter onto his face and chest, but he ignored it and let the body drop onto the ground before giving a quick look the rest of his team. All of them were covered in blood, but unharmed and their goons laid dead, then he looked at the ground and the corpses that were there. "Here are five of them," he said and tapped the vox. "Can you tell us where is the other five."

"Behind the corner," Perseus said. "They're coming towards you."

Harry nodded and looked towards the place which Perseus indicated and winced, there was not a single thing that would obstruct line of sight of those coming towards them. "After me," he said and quickly ran towards the corner.

"What do you plan to do?" Horus asked.

"Ambush," Harry said as he slammed with his body against the wall and waited.

He heard the goons walk forward, their steps loud and clear, even if that was not enough their voices were more than enough. He let the goons emerge from behind the corner and walk past the position where they laid in ambush. Then he looked at his team and nodded before the closest goon, activating the blade that came alive with a buzz and sending a thrust towards the chest of his target. He felt the blade bury itself in the flesh and then he turned the thrust into a cut and sliced the chest of his target, he gave a look the rest of the team and noticed that they were also done with the task.

"All targets neutralized," he said, activating his vox. "Proceeding to the next stage."

Once he heard the acknowledgement he walked to the wall and started to climb it, at first he wasn't sure if it was going to succeed, but then his fingers felt various cracks, nooks and holes he could use to climb. As he reached the top of the wall he stopped before hauling himself over it and instead looked around, just in time to see a patrol walk past his position. Once the patrol was away he hauled himself onto the walkway and reached to help Cato climb.

"We will split," he said once all of them were on the wall. "Horus, take two and move to the right, I'll take Cato and move to the left."

They split and as Harry moved along the wall he focused on the task ahead of him and on nothing else, he looked around and noticed Horus murder a patrol that stumbled upon the older boy. However Harry didn't need to wait too long as soon he had his own enemies to deal with and much to his surprise this time they were fighting back. He blocked a strike of a knife with his shield and at the same time thrust forward his sword that effortlessly sliced the flesh and buried itself in the body of his enemy. He pulled it upwards, blood and tissue spraying to the sides, before ripping it out of the wound and letting his enemy drop onto the ground to die in a pool of his own blood and flowing out organs.

"Two patrols gone, four more to go," Cato said quietly and Hardy nodded.

Four patrols that were left were dispatched by them with equal ease and half an hour later all of them gathered in one spot and Harry reported that their mission was done and moments later a trio of Thunderhawks descended from the sky and from them jumped out dozens of full battle-brothers. It was also when his mind finally caught up and realized that he had killed and he bent over vomiting violently onto the ground. He wanted to be a member of the chapter, but until now he never truly realized how grim and dark were duties of the chapter.

o-0-o

Vibius crashed through a window and landed in a large chamber, he looked around and he could see several of the Vanguard Veterans carve a bloody path with their blades, while his own squad covered them with a withering bolter fire. He gave a look one of the Apothecaries that were herding all of the males that were below a certain age and then moved forward, he noticed a part of one of the walls move aside and reveal a hidden doorway through which charged in several members of the gang clutching various weapons and other tools of death.

He aimed his bolter at the first member of their little group and squeezed the trigger, releasing a small burst of fire that cut down the first one and maimed the ones behind him. With that danger neutralized he walked to one of the squads that were storming out of the chamber and he joined them, speeding up the process and making them all achieve their objectives sooner than normal.

o-0-o

Harry wiped bile from his lips and straightened himself before reaching for a canteen and pouring some water into his mouth and quickly spitting it out as he tried to forget the horrible taste that now felt.

"You did good," Sergeant Scipio said, appearing behind them. "It will pass sooner rather than later and your mission is done."

Harry nodded and wiping the blade of his sword clean he slid it into a scabbard on his back and followed the Sergeant to a Rhino that stopped right outside. They scrambled inside and soon were on their way back to the fortress of the chapter, it was also when that Harry realized that his true and very real training as a future member of the chapter just started.

o-0-o

Week later a lone Thunderhawk gunship sliced through the atmosphere of Shangri-La, it was painted in black and red and it touched down on one of the landing pads right outside of the fortress. Once the ramp lowered itself from it stepped out a single individual with a rosette of a Lord Inquisitor on his neck and let his gaze sweep across honor guard assembled between him and the gates of the fortress. Two teams of Creed's Initiates and two ten man squads of Praetorian guard in their polished armors.

"Perfect," he whispered, his voice soft and silken.

o-0-o

Harry felt the armor weight heavily upon his shoulders, but he endured and ignored it, instead focusing his gaze on the Inquisitor that walked down the ramp. The man was a huge, hulking person, while he wasn't as tall as Astartes were he was still an impressive person, easily standing at seven feet tall, whole body covered in thick bundles of muscles and clad in a power armor, showing high standing of the individual amongst the ranks of the Inquisition. His face was covered by a plethora of scars and instead of his right eye there was an cybernetic augment and whatever remained of his hair was shaved short.

"Welcome to Shangri-La, Lord Inquisitor Ariac Paleologos," Lord Traian said as he approached the Inquisitor from one of the massive gates leading into the fortress. "Your arrival was an unexpected one."

"I wish it was one that I could properly announce, alas the times are dangerous and news I bear are dark," Ariac said those words and paused for a second. "My Ordo has gathered informations concerning several banned and dangerous cults growing their roots within your realm and I came here to oversee their removal."

Lord Traian let out a short growl, one that almost made Harry shit himself in fear, second-in-command looked as if he was about to explode and burn the closest ones. "I see," he said carefully. "If you follow me I will take you to the war room as I think that a formal audience can wait."

 _To be continued..._

 **o-0-o**

 **A/N – A short chapter, but I don't feel like writing a longer one as this one perfectly wraps the mission and I don't feel like adding one more would suit it.**

 **Terms:**

 **Vanguard and Sternguard Veterans – two elite subunits inside of the 1** **st** **Company of a chapter, Vanguard are close combat specialists, Sternguard long range and there's friendly competition between them as they try to show that they are better than the other group.**

 **Volkite – martian death ray kind of a weapon, repetitive bursts of energy that can burn through armor and cook one inside. Extremely rare gear and given only to the best of the chapter and not all chapters have them in their armories.**

 **Combi-weapons – a combination of a bolter and some other weapon attached to it, again weapon for the elites and heroes.**

 **Lord Inquisitor – one of the most senior and most powerful Inquisitors and a person you want to avoid at all cost.**

 **Ordos – The Inquisition is divided into several cells, three large (Xenos, Hereticus and Malleus) and an undefined number of smaller ordos. It is an organisation that is responsible for control of other units and each agent can work as they see fit and in time of need can request support from any branch of the Imperium.**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N – Next chapter of the story that's even more grim than the last one and shows somewhat more ruthless side of the chapter, one that shows when they confront religions. It also shows few quirks from the chapter's style of fighting. As always, read and review.**

 **o-0-o**

Traian followed by the Lord Inquisitor entered the war room and looked around, they were alone and no other commanders of the chapter. He activated a hololith projector in the middle of the room and made it show Shangri-La before looking at the Inquisitor. "Do you have knowledge of exactly where they are?"

"Not precisely," Ariac said and added after a moment. "While many believe that the Inquisition is omnipresent and omnipotent, we aren't quite, especially when someone goes to great lengths to remove the agents we try to insert."

"We like our privacy," Traian said and looked at the map of the city. "As long as it is inside of the city we can find them. Our Initiates need to see combat and are getting bored, and there are few companies resting and training before their next deployment."

"Good, good," Ariac said and added after a moment. "I will send a message to the ship that brought me here and ask for a transfer of all of the data I had acquired. Without looking at it, I can tell that all of it points to poor districts where they can get support of the poor and frustrated."

"So the slums," Traian said and fell silent for a long moment, letting the noise of machines working in the background fill the vacuum before speaking again. "Entering them will be a risky and a dangerous task, we let them live on their own and don't enter them unless we need to increase the quota of recruits we require to keep the numbers at a proper level."

"I see," Ariac said. "Of course, I have my own agents that can handle the matter, but in this case I think that letting your troops handle the matter with my agents only providing data will be wiser."

"I think so," Traian said and gave one last look the map. "I will need time to get troops assigned and, more importantly, get our scouts pulled from other duties, so I suggest we meet once again in six hours."

"Of course, Lord Traian," Ariac said and walked away, his armor humming quietly as he departed the room.

Traian watched the Lord Inquisitor disappear and then looked at the map. "We should have moved against them sooner," he said and activated his vox. "Scouts Sergeants and Initiates commanders are to report to the war room in two hours."

o-0-o

Harry panted a bit as he climbed on top of the walls surrounding the fortress-monastery and looked around, the view was so much different than from the ground level. He could see the city sprawl in every direction outside of the fortress and he was even able to see the outer walls that wrapped around the whole city, ground to space batteries emplaced there and beyond all of that he could see dense forests untouched by human activity.

"It kinda makes me think of home," Aeneas said as he appeared to his side. "Home that is somewhere below and which we won't see for the next couple of months."

At those words Harry felt something ache him painfully in his heart, he almost forgot it by now, wholly occupied with training and various exercises thrown at them that left them exhausted by the end of the day. However today they had free time, and those words made him wince in pain as he remembered the warmth, comfort, and a sense of belonging whenever he entered his family home. Even if it was an adopted family, he cherished every moment he spent there and it made him forget about all of the terrible things he remembered from living with his blood family, somewhere out there in the universe.

"Aye," he finally said and wiped sweat of his forehead. "I miss it, but it should pass sooner than we think it will pass."

"True that," Aeneas agreed and rolled up sleeve of his shirt, showing the tattoo all of them had. "But now we also belong to the chapter, and we have duties that are more important right now than what we want."

Harry sadly nodded and turned to look at the complex of buildings where they lived, ate, trained, and where everything needed by the chapter was. Even if it was a fortress it was a masterwork of art and architecture, a place where practical aspect seamlessly connected with beauty and grace of form. As he looked at the buildings that were covered in perfectly cut and polished masonry, yet he knew that below them there were layers of adamantium, plasteel and ferrocrete designed to survive ferocious attacks and protect whatever was below. He gave it a look before going back to his musings, enjoying one of few moments of precious rest they were given, knowing well it would soon end.

Several hours later Harry pressed the rifle against his shoulder and squeezed the trigger, he felt the massive gun slam against his body as three bolts left the barrel and howled across the range, slamming into the targets on the other end of it. He shot a look towards the target and smiled when he saw that they were as close to the dead center as it was possible. Looking to the sides he saw that the rest of his team was also done with firing and their targets were peppered with holes.

"Good work," Scipio said as he appeared behind them. "This will be all for today, as there's a mission for you. In fifteen minutes I want all of you in the war room."

They nodded and, depositing the weapons in the armory, they raced to their room to clean themselves and from there to the briefing room. When they entered it they noticed that it was already filled with people, several dozens of their fellow Initiates and even full Marines. Moving quietly they walked to the place where the Initiates and their Sergeants were.

"This operation is probably the hardest and the most dangerous one in which you will take part," Lord Traian said as he entered the room and looked at them before walking to the lectern and activating hololith projector. "We let the cults that spawned in the slums exist for too long, and now they're a cancer that needs to be removed to let the healthy cells of the society survive and thrive." Traian manipulated the projector and in the middle of the room there appeared a detailed map of the slums and to the side of it a list of units and vehicles. "Crucial attack vectors will be covered by the Vanguard and Praetorians, the rest of them are for the Initiates and normal Marines. In the reserve there will be five squads of Terminators and every squad commander will receive a teleportation beacon. Heavy support in the form of Vindicators and Devastators will be assigned to every task force, and Scouts will infiltrate the area before we come in. There are also Inquisitorial agents working in the district, and they will provide us with data as we move through the district.

"I will lead the main force, First Captain Drusus will lead the second, and the last will be led by Sergeant Vibius," Traian said and looked around the hall. "We deploy in two hours. For Shangri-La! For the Emperor!"

"For Shangri-La! For the Emperor!" All of them roared and quickly left the room to prepare their gear for the mission to come.

o-0-o

At two hours mark from the massive vehicle bays and landings pads of the Emperor's Creed fortress-monastery emerged dozens of vehicles, Rhinos, Razorbacks, Vindicators, Thunderhawks, Land Speeders, Land Raiders and even a couple of Whirlwinds and Predators. All of them swiftly moved through the main part of the city and passed through one of its massive gates, just to stop outside or in case of Thunderhawks start to circle above a gigantic district. This district was built out of whatever materials were available, could be stolen, salvaged, or found; there was no order to it, and it was filled by those that were too poor to live in the city or had problems with the law. Also it was a safe haven for all of those that wanted to wreak havoc and attack the chapter as the Arbites entered it reluctantly and the chapter only paid any interest to it when looking for more recruits than it could get from its other sources without overexploiting one of them.

Harry stepped out of the Razorback in which they travelled and the first thing that hit him was the smell, it stunk and badly at that. They weren't even in the slums yet and he already could feel the unholy smell that floated from them. "What the fuck is that smell?"

"Lack of sewage, personal hygiene, running water, and few other things," Scipio said as he emerged from the vehicle and threw Harry a small bag. "Inside you will find rebreathers that attach to your helmets, put them on and you should be able to breath. Same for the rest of you."

Harry took the bag, pulled a small rebreather out of it that had connectors that allowed attaching it to the helmet he wore, he put it on and felt four soft clicks as it connected with the helmet and systems placed inside started to work. Almost immediately he felt the air get less smelly and he was able to freely breathe it. He looked at his teammates and noticed that with the rebreathers they looked like a group of experienced and seasoned warriors, not ones still in training.

Scipio motioned for them to get closer, once they did he gave them a look. "Watch out for attacks coming from every direction and angle, we will enter after the Vanguard and we will be accompanied by the Razorback. Don't push before the vehicle and let it clear obstacles from your path."

They nodded and moments later all of them heard a booming voice in their vox. "Start pushing forward, take your time and avoid unnecessary casualties," Lord Traian said. "For Shangri-La! For the Emperor!"

They repeated the cry and with the Sergeant at the front they slowly walked after the Razorback that rolled forward, crunching stones, pieces of wood, and debris under its tracks. As they got closer to the district, Harry was truly able to see in how much of a decrepit state it was, many buildings seemed as if they were about to collapse on themselves and bury alive whoever lived in them. People that were there that didn't disappear at the approach of the Marines looked poorly fed, clothed and generally weak.

"Don't let their appearance fool you," Sergeant Scipio said over the vox. "They're capable of more than they look. Also zealots will hide between them and you won't see them until they start to fire at you."

Harry nodded grimly and grasped his rifle firmer before looking around, as he did it he saw movement in the corner of his eye and the next thing he felt was being hurled backwards straight into the side of the Razorback by some unseen force. At the same time he heard several discharges of an autogun and moments later the heavy, barking roar of bolters. He slammed into the vehicle and groaned from pain as he tried to sat up, he looked at himself and saw in his chest plate several shallow dents and soot on the paint around them. He grasped the handle on the hatch of the Razorback and used it to pull himself up, wincing and groaning in pain.

"Cracked rib or two and normal pain," Sergeant Scipio said as he approached Harry and tossed him small syringe. "Inject it into one of the major veins and it should work almost immediately. Once you're ready we continue."

Harry took the syringe and found a spot between two plates of armor, thrust the needle into the vein that was below and almost immediately felt the pain recede. He made few moves and nodded to himself before picking up his gun and looking at the Sergeant. "I'm ready."

Scipio nodded and gave him a look. "Let's go, but be careful and don't charge."

o-0-o

When Harry was hit Scipio's head almost immediately flew towards the place from where the fire came and he quickly spotted a teen or a young adult run away, a gun in their hands. Not thinking about anything he aimed at them and squeezed the trigger, a burst of fire erupted from the barrel as three bolts hurled themselves at their target. He saw them hit the target between the shoulders and reap huge holes in its flesh, killing it almost instantly. He scanned the area and saw one spot where more troubles could wait, a small, almost destroyed building right in their path.

"Horus, Titus, Cato," he barked, getting their attention and snapping out of shock. "The building in front of us, check it and make sure nothing is there."

The three of them nodded and quickly moved towards the target while letting him move towards Harry who was hit. A quick look around confirmed his suspicions that it was a normal autogun, which was an expected weapon and a blessing as it shouldn't cause too much damage upon impact as their armors were designed and reinforced in mind with surviving a real battle and nobody would bring an autogun into it.

o-0-o

Traian slowly walked forward, his massive gold and purple Terminator armor shining in the light as his group pushed onward. So far the resistance they met was surprisingly scarce and they weren't stopped anywhere, they weren't even slowed down as all zealots so far achieved was wounding a couple of Initiates and almost killing one.

"It's too easy," Ariac said from the side. "My reports mentioned (a) group that was heavily funded by the Ecclesiarchy and received plenty of support."

Traian looked at his Praetorians moving in a loose line ahead of them and nodded. "Aye, this is too easy, they might be luring us or they're just scared of us coming in force. They also know that we just wait for them gathering in one place."

Ariac looked at the sky and indicated a flight of Thunderhawks flying high above them. "Whole company of Marines ready to be dropped into the place where the combat is thickest?"

"Not a whole company," Traian said with a small smile. "Just half of it and few Thunderhawks as bombers."

"You aren't taking any chances?"

"None," Traian said and stopped in place before looking at the buildings that surrounded the clearing where they stopped. It was a large patch of open ground with several buildings growing around it and behind them a trail of destruction wrecked by their Land Raider and accompanying Vindicator. "This looks too much like a trap to me."

The moment he said those words in the windows of the buildings showed up dozens, if not hundreds of humans, each of them holding some kind of firearm and some even some crude power weapons. "Die heretics and blasphemers!" one of them bellowed before opening fire.

Traian felt bullets and laser beams slam into his armor and harmlessly bounce away or dissapate and fly wild. However he knew that the enemy given too much time would soon hit more accurately so he moved his autocannon and activated it, making it spit out a steady trail of bullets that carved a bloody path through the bodies of those unfortunate to be on their path. Each of them upon impact exploded, not only tearing a hole in the body, but also and more importantly sending in every direction a rain of shrapnel that caused further damage.

His bodyguards weren't far behind and soon their storm bolters added their weight to the fire that was being unleashed on the zealots. However it wasn't until the Vindicator moved into position and fired its massive Demolisher Cannon for the combat to end. This single shot was more than enough to do the deed as it slammed into the base of one of the buildings and after piercing first wall it exploded inside. The shockwave and the sheer energy unleashed in this one moment was too much for the building which in a cloud of dust, smoke, and debris collapse onto itself, burying its occupants alive. Unholy amounts of destruction unleashed by the Vindicator prompted the zealots that were still alive to disappear and run away, as far away from the machine as possible.

"Do not chase them," Traian barked into his vox at the sight of his Praetorians moving to pursuit(e) their enemies. "They want that us to do that."

His bodyguards paused and nodded, returning to their former positions as they watched the area for troubles that could be lurking in the shadows or out of sight. It was an unknown area for them and even with all of the auspexes of their armors and overhead reconnaissance platforms(,) they were unable to detect every single hidden passage or hideout.

"At least we know how to find them," Ariac said and Traian shot him a look. "Ambushes, that also explains almost complete lack of civilians, sure, they fear us, but even they they wouldn't disappear completely."

Traian nodded and activated his vox. "Don't chase the enemy, check every building and make sure that there is nothing suspicious behind your positions. They want to draw us into ambushes and traps."

o-0-o

Harry leaned against the wall and looked at the wooden door between him and Horus, then he looked at the Sergeant and indicated the door. The Sergeant nodded and after a quick check that everything was in order Harry moved and kicked the door inside. Wood splintered under his kick and he entered the room, immediately followed by Horus. Inside there was a small family, a mother, a father and two children in their teenage years, at the sound of breaking wood and movement all of them looked in the direction of whatever was the cause of it.

"Keep your hands in the air!" Horus barked and at the same time Harry gathered himself and pointed his gun in their direction as the rest of the team entered.

"Good job," Scipio said, entering the room and noticing whole family with hands high in the air. "Cato, Aeneas, search the whole thing. Horus, take half outside and keep an eye out for troubles. In the meantime I will talk with those four you caught." The Sergeant focused on the family and Harry could that if not for the guns aimed at their heads they would have dropped onto the ground unconscious. "Starting with what do you know about a cult that spread itself here."

"We don't know a single thing, M'Lord," the head of the family said.

Scipio just gave them a long look and smiled thinly, it was a cold and unpleasant smile, one that Harry knew would bring pain and suffering. He himself saw it too many bloody times during the beginning of their training and it then resulted in punishments that sent shivers down his spine.

o-0-o

Horus walked out of the building, looked around and winced. He could see several possible attack routes and not enough good choke points to slow down anybody coming towards them. At least they had that Razorback with a double heavy bolter that could stop anything coming from one direction and wouldn't need much assistance. Keeping that in mind he focused on the rest of possible approaches and nodded to himself when he noticed a spot that could work and be good enough to slow down and possibly stop the tide that could come. Even if the slums were in a terrible state, there were several buildings that managed to reach more than two and a half meter in height and thus provided vantage points and high ground for those that could use and reach them.

"Titus, Cornelius," Horus said, getting their attention. "Climb onto the roof of the building to our right. Asculus and Remus, you will come with me."

Horus walked with the two few more meters until they reached a place where there was some kind of a low wall that could provide them with cover. He kneeled behind it and checked his gear, he still had several full magazines, two frag grenades and a smoke one. On his back he also had his shield and sword, but he was going to use them only when desperate. He was thoroughly aware that they received far better, far more and far more intense tactics and weapons training than this ragtag group of zealots so keeping the range long was what they wanted. While shortening it would allow their enemies to score some hits and possibly wound or kill them.

He shook his head and cleared his mind before checking his bolter and ensuring that it worked as it was supposed to. All they had left to do was to wait and cover the backs of the rest of the team as they searched the building.

o-0-o

"You lie," Scipio said quietly. "I can smell lies and you stink of them, so speak the truth and I might spare you."

The whole family paled and Harry could swear that the kids either pissed or shit themselves from fear and stress, while it seemed that their parents were more used to seeing angry Marines and beyond losing some color of their faces didn't even flinch. He focused on the whole group and he noticed that they behaved as if there was something to hide, something they didn't want to be found. He quickly glanced at the floor and noticed a rug cover one part of it, tho calling that piece of cloth a rug was an abuse of the word.

"Sergeant?" Harry asked and nudged the rug with his feet. "Is it me or does it look strange?"

"Good eye, Hadrian," the Sergeant nodded and looked at Publius and Perseus. "Check what that is."

At those words head of the family lunged forward and Harry instinctively moved and kicked the man in the crotch, his boot tipped with plasteel connected with the crotch of the man and stopped his movement, before he slammed onto the floor crying in pain. "Stay where you are," Harry said and placed his foot on the chest of the man before looking at the Sergeant and the rest of the family. "I think that's a pretty good piece of evidence that there's more to this place."

The Sergeant nodded and focused on Publius and Perseus who pushed away the piece of cloth and revealed a trapdoor hidden below. At this all of them exchanged meaningful looks and Perseus pulled it open. "Leads into something that looks like a cellar," he said as he peered inside. "Several crates, chests, some lasguns, and weird whips."

"Electro-flails," Sergeant Scipio said and added after a moment. "Each ends with several hooked wires and the handle is too thick to be a normal whip?"

"Yes, Sergeant," Perseus said and jumped down. "Also icons of the Emperor and a shrine."

"Well, that makes things interesting," Sergeant Scipio said and turned to look at the family. "Illegal weapons, lying to an Astartes, practicing illegal and officially banned cults and probably being a part of one of them."

"We didn't know a single thing about those things," the mother said and stopped when Scipio moved forward.

"You lie," he said and paused. "That will be two death sentences and the kids will be taken by the chapter as our new Aspirants." He looked at Harry and said. "Cuff them and shove them into the Razorback."

"Mercy, mercy, good lord, mercy!" the mother of the family cried, dropping to her knees.

"I'm already merciful," Sergeant Scipio said. "I could have executed all four of you, yet I give them a chance to live and show that they're more useful than their traitorous parents."

Harry slung his rifle over his shoulder and reached into one of the pouches that he had attached to his belt and pulled out of it several sets of cuffs, he moved to the first boy, stopped behind his back and grasped his hands before quickly cuffing him and then moving to the next one. As he finished doing it Cato and Aeneas returned, in their arms few autoguns, magazines for them and a crude sword.

"Cato, take them into the Razorback," the Sergeant said and Cato nodded before grasping cuffed teens and walking out of the building. Once they were out Scipio pointed his bolter at the head of their mother and squeezed the trigger, a single bolt flew out of it and killed her on the spot by blowing her head to pieces, painting everybody around in bits and pieces of brain matter, bones and blood. Then he quickly moved and pointed his bolter at the head of the father of the family and once again fired. "Pull the crates out and open them," he ordered.

Harry was about to move when outside they heard sounds of gunfight, softer noise of autoguns and heavier, barking noise of bolters. The Sergeant just glanced outside and then looked around. "Hadrian, Publius, go and help them."

o-0-o

Vibius crouched behind a Razorback and looked around, trying to see any way out of the mess in which his squad ended. Somewhere in front of his position was a sniper, or at least a good hunter that got his hands on a longlas and knew what he was doing. And before that sniper there were plenty of zealots that had a scary amount of experience. If that wasn't bad enough they somehow managed to obtain hotshot lasers and even some bolters. It first it looked like an easy task, but now half of his squad was injured, two were dead, and the team of Initiates that also reached this place was mostly whole. Just two out of it were dead and the third injured, but that was because they were the lesser problem.

"Where is this damned support?" He asked, activating his vox and checking his gear. "We are pinned, we have wounded and no way out."

"On its way, a Vindicator, a squad of Devastators, and two squads of Veterans are three hundred meters to the west and are moving to help you."

He growled as he felt bits and pieces of chopped away ferrocrete pepper across his armor. "Give me a Thunderhawk with some bombs or one that can simply blast that damned sniper to pieces."

"A Thunderhawk is on its way."

At this he smiled and seconds later noise of working jet engines cut through the air and as he looked up he could see a massive, armored form of a Thunderhawk approach them. His superhuman sight allowed him to see pylons under its wings heavy with ordnance. A pair of missiles was launched and he could hear the zealots scramble in fear, however before they could do much the missiles exploded, for a brief second turning into a pair of miniature suns.

He emerged from behind his cover and walked forward, before him most of positions of the zealots was vaporized and those that weren't, were in poor conditions and more importantly most of the zealots was dead or on the verge of dying. "Move!" he roared looking at the Marines around him. "Move and don't let them regain their composure!"

o-0-o

Traian nodded to himself as he fired his assault cannon and the bullets fired by it tore through a wall in front of him before exploding right behind it and killing zealots that were on his path. The day was finally starting to go as planned as they were able to meet some resistance and zealots stopped hiding.

"Seems like we have pushed deep enough," Ariac said and listened to his vox for a moment. "My agents report that even more zealots is rushing towards us."

"Good, good," Traian said and activated his vox. "Terminators, teleport to my position. Now!"

The moment he said those words the air became filled with ozone as teleportation arrays activated and ten Terminators with thunder hammers and storm shields appeared in blinding flashes of light. What previously was a slightly one-sided engagement turned into an outright slaughter(,) as not many things were able to stop the terrible strength of thunder hammers augmented by the armor and the inhuman strength of a Marine inside.

"Don't chase them!" Traian bellowed as he was the lines of zealots break and his Marines get eager to pursue fleeing prey. "They just want you to do that!"

He saw them slow down and at this he nodded and looked at the vehicles that slowly moved behind them, while the Land Raider didn't see much combat, the Vindicator and the Sicaran that was further back saw plenty of it. Whoever organized the cult or was responsible for its militant arm knew how to make traps and slow down the advance, so every several dozen meters they needed to remove rubble blocking the path or deal with ambushes that showed up from nowhere. However most of those problems ended when the Sicaran or the Vindicator opened fire and either demolished the whole building or just tore into those hiding in it.

Traian cycled his assault cannon and made sure that the mechanism worked before he moved forward, following the Terminators that still pushed forward, but not in a haphazard way, but actually thinking about their moves and not leaving any gaps in the formation.

o-0-o

Horus reloaded his bolt rifle and crouched behind the wall as a hail of bullets passed above his head and slammed into a building behind him. He stuck his head from behind the cover and aiming carefully he fired, targeting heads and torsos of the zealots charging towards the position he tried to hold. He looked at the roof where Titus and Cornelius waited and gently activated his vox. "Open fire, aim at their rear."

He heard their confirmation and moments later two more bolters added their weight to the fire that was thrown at the zealots and he could see them pause for a moment from the shock and surprise. He expected them to waiver and shatter into a mob that would run away from danger, however instead of doing that the zealots pushed forward.

"Grenades," he heard Sergeant Scipio bellow. "Now!"

Horus grasped a grenade from his belt, removed the safety pin and hurled it towards the mob. He saw it draw an arch in the air before exploding right between the zealots. Bodies were torn, body parts, shredded tissue and blood flew in all the directions and the first few ranks of them were almost vanished. While the rest of the horde was stopped in place, mainly by the sheer scale of the destruction in front of them and the suddenness of it. Then they turned and started to run in the opposite direction

He wanted to chase them and was about to leap over the wall when he felt a heavy hand of the Sergeant land on his shoulder and pull him back. "No!" Scipio said simply. "They want us to do just the thing you wanted to do. Before you ask, we will chase them, but at our own speed and we will do it safely."

o-0-o

Several hours of very bloody and nasty fighting later, Harry finally was able to return to the fortress and hit the showers. The whole battle extended well into the night-time and by the end of it all of them were exhausted both mentally and physically, as well as sporting dozens of minor injuries. So when they were finally done with it and allowed to return to the fortress he was over the moon and the first thing he did once the briefing was done and their gear returned to the armory was to hit the showers and enjoy the warm water wash away all of the grime, blood and sweat that accumulated over his body, forming a thick, tough crust. As he washed, water almost black in color, he realized that during the whole mission they were judged by the rest of the chapter, to see if they were worthy of wearing chapter's colors and signs.

o-0-o

 **A/N – Why the slums? The poor want any way to improve their life and thus make themselves a prime target and a very fertile soil for any cult that promises more or less anything. Yes, the cult could develop within the city walls, but it is an environment where the Marines are present all the time and thus make it a very hard for it to slip under the radar.**

 **Since it is a day before Christmas, Merry Christmas!**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N – Finally a new chapter of the story and has all the things everybody loves in grimdark and much more. So read, enjoy and review.**

 **o-0-o**

A Thunderhawk entered into hover above a ferrocrete landing pad and slowly touched down, its landing gear extending and coming into contact with the surface of the pad. The whole craft shuddered and shook before coming to stop and slowly lowering its front ramp and revealing its cargo to the world.

Harry stepped down the ramp after their Sergeant and looked around, the town where they were delivered was a small one, with a large cluster of buildings ahead of them and several large warehouses around the landing pad. Everywhere else there were almost untouched, wild forests and between them large fields full of wheat and other plants.

"I don't know what anybody could seek here," Harry said after a moment. "There's nothing precious here."

"Exactly," Sergeant Scipio said and smirked. "It's out of the way and nobody looks for it. So it's perfect for anybody that wants to cause problems or just want a safe haven away from our attention. In Shangri-La or other major cities where we have our strongholds and garrisons, we also sniff out troubles much sooner. Here it takes time before it is noticed and in the meantime they can get comfortable and run they business, while making sure that uprooting and removal of them is a challenge."

"So we are here because the chapter spotted that something is wrong?" Horus asked. "Or something else?"

"Because we think something is wrong," Sergeant Scipio said. "But those are our suspicions and we are here to investigate and check if they're true."

"And then what?" Aeneas asked.

"Arrest ones responsible for it and depending on the seriousness of the offenses, if something minor, trial here, major, delivering them to Shangri-La for the High Lord or one of the Centurions to judge them."

They nodded and all of them walked to a local dignitary that looked as if they didn't even want to be anywhere close to the place and as far away from any of the Emperor's Angels of Death as possible. It also gave Harry few precious moments to analyze that person and all of the exhaustive weeks of training paid off as he noticed that even if there was nervousness, there was more to it than just the normal one. Harry glanced at the Sergeant and saw him shift slightly his stance, one of thousands of subtle signs all of them learned and used to pass messages. This one meant that the Sergeant also noticed the thing and was aware of it.

"Seems pretty worthless," Perseus said and the dignitary almost scoffed at those words, only presence of a true Space Marine stopping me from rebutting harshly.

"We're one of the most important farming towns on the planet, My Lords," the dignitary said, his beady eyes constantly focused on Perseus.

"Maybe you are," Sergeant Scipio said in an annoyed voice and focused on the source of his annoyance. "But for last twenty or thirty years you didn't provide a single Aspirant for the chapter. So get to the point."

The dignitary gulped, but then he managed to nod. "We have prepared quarters for you and will provide you with whatever documents and data you will request. If you follow me, I'll take you to your quarters."

Sergeant Scipio nodded in a manner of someone that wanted to get done with formalities and focus on the task they were given. The dignitary gulped, noticing the bad mood of the Marine in front of him and quickly led them to their quarters that were located inside of a complex used by the Arbites. It was a normal building, nothing too fancy, cots by the walls, small bathroom, lockets for weapons and gears and everything in a very Spartan decor.

"Before you do anything," Sergeant Scipio said, noticing their willingness to unpack the gear they brought. "First check for listening devices and similar things. Governors don't like us too much and want to know as much as they can."

They nodded and leaving packs in the middle of the room looked into every possible nook and cranny, trying to spot where the listening devices and any other data gathering equipment could be placed. Harry peered at the wall and smiled when he saw paint too fresh in one spot to match with the rest, he reached for a knife he had at his belt and scraped against the wall. The paint peeled away and it revealed a small, black box connected to a couple of microphones and listening devices. Harry pulled the box away and quickly severed the cables connecting the box to the microphones before tossing them behind him.

"Not bad," Sergeant Scipio commented upon seeing the box "They really want to spy on us as this is a device used only by the Inquisition and few outside of it."

"So they have something to hide," Aeneas said. "Otherwise they wouldn't bother with it."

"Or want to distract us from other listening devices," Horus said with a grimace. "A common tactic used when dealing with something, give them a visible thing they focus on and ignore the rest."

"Indeed," Sergeant Scipio said and looked at them. "Look everywhere and go over everything no matter what you already found as there will be more."

o-0-o

Lord Traian looked at the demolished slums and rubbed his chin, thinking about the problems uncovered during the cleansing. The whole thing was riddled with tunnels, hidden passages, traps and other things that generally made entering it a huge risk, especially in something heavier, like power armor. Also they were in the way of fields of fire from the walls and a perfect source of cover for anybody wishing to attack the city. There was also the problem of the population that lived there as something needed to be done with them and there were dozens of thousands of them.

"Perhaps the city shall be expanded," an Archmagos Errant said and Traian looked at the form of the Mechanicus priest wrapped in a red robe. "Current walls barely wrap around it and soon people will start to build outside, so it would be prudent to erect another ring of them."

"The first question High Lord will have is who is supposed to build it and how long will it take."

"My Forge World can do it and I believe that it will take us around twenty months to erect the walls and many more to fill the space behind them," the Archmagos said. "It can be sped up, but it would require diverting resources from other projects and we don't want to do that without pressing need."

"I believe you will need to divert the resources, as many as you can manage," High Lord Aurelian said when he appeared behind them. "I approve of the idea, but I want it achieved in the meaningful amount of time and any other amount of time won't please me."

"Of course, High Lord," the Archmagos bowed, cowed by the presence of his liege lord and ruler of the whole realm. "I will immediately inform Fabricator General that you expect us to begin construction immediately."

"Good, leave us," Aurelian said and Traian felt gaze of his liege focus on him. "Where did you send all of the Initiates and several squads from your regiment?"

"To hunt down corrupt governors and remove cells of various cults we uncovered," Traian said, meeting the gaze. "It needed to be done and I feared that someone or something learned of it ahead of time, so I dispatched them immediately with ten squads of Terminators in reserve, close to teleportation arrays of our fleet base."

"I understand that it needed to be done with utmost haste, but you could have consulted me and informed that it would be carried out. When you will launch second such operation I want information that it has begun, so that I know where are the assets I might need. Speaking about Initiates, how soon can they begin the transformation?"

Traian pulled his brows closer and looked at the city, trying to clear his mind and focus his thoughts. "I would say a week and then do the first phase and after that with the usual intervals for the next four phases. So in other words the first one of them will become a Marine in twenty-six months give or take two weeks."

"And then they will have around four or five months to gather the experience before we can expect the troubles to reach us," Aurelian said. "Not the biggest amount of time to get rookies up to speed and make sure they won't do any huge mistakes."

"Aye," Traian said and winced. "I can talk with the Apothecaries to speed up the process, but even then it will take around twenty months and we increase the chance of unwanted mutations, instabilities and rejections above the accepted and expected level."

"No," Aurelian said and Traian looked at his liege in surprise. "I have other plans put in motion to convince the Ecclesiarchy to leave us alone and mind their own business, if they want combat they will get it, a very bloody and costly one."

"If I may ask, what are they?"

"Old alliances signed by our chapter at the dawn of the Imperium and after the Betrayal," Aurelian said and pulled out a small dagger, obviously xeno in origin. "I need you to deliver it to Cuanus Secundus and leave by the wraithbone monolith on the planet."

Traian's eyes lit with mischievous and cunning fires as he took the dagger and looked at it, a simple wicked blade with a large stone placed in its guard. "They won't know what kind of an eagle they want to play with?"

"I believe that they are unaware of the allies we can call upon," Aurelian said and smiled dangerously. "And until it is too late for them I don't plan to enlighten them. Once you come back you will be in command of the whole chapter as I'm taking three Regiments and support elements to Armageddon, they sent an urgent distress signal requesting aid in stopping Ork incursion."

"Orks? On Armageddon? That's like the least likely target they could attack and Steel Legion should have handled them quite easily."

"Should have if there wasn't a stupid governor in place, same kind as we removed on Argentum."

"Ah," Traian nodded. "A corrupt idiot that plots with a local ork warboss to have his way and doesn't give a shit about anything else. No wonders they fail to stop the simplest incursion of orks."

"More or less and Armageddon limits campaign time due to the climate so we need to come in force," Aurelian said and added after a moment. "Blood Angels also answered and we should arrive right before them."

Traian nodded and slipping the dagger into a holster on a belt of his armor he left his liege and walked to a Stormraven that waited for him. The moment he was inside he activated an encrypted vox channel to his First Captain. "Prepare a strike cruiser and your company, there's a mission I need you to accompany me on."

o-0-o

Harry let out a sigh of relief as he removed probably the last microphone from the ceiling of the room and dropped it onto a large pile in the middle. The amount of spyware they found was truly impressive and he never imagined so much could be spent on a single room.

"There are rooms where there is more of those things," Sergeant Scipio said and added with a thin smile. "But usually inside of them there are discussed matters far more important than what we will be doing here. War room of our fortress is a good example, but that is because we need footage of what is happening there and in case of other places they actually show some value and?"

"And accurate data is needed to prepare a good plan," they said, this lesson was drilled into their heads for the whole length of their training.

"Indeed," the Sergeant said and they glanced at him. "Leave all of the gear excluding your weapons and we will pay the governor a visit and start looking through his records. I bet that he makes whatever is in his power to scrap as many of them as possible and to make sure the rest is as clean as we want it to be."

"Would he do it?" Perseus asked. "From what I recall from the training we got prior to this mission this is punished more severely than a minor case of corruption."

"Aye, he would as every criminal thinks that they will avoid the mistakes that doomed their predecessors and in the few centuries I served the chapter I saw more than enough of them," Sergeant Scipio said and grimaced. "All of them did the same mistake, assumed that modifying their data is just enough to make me believe that everything was done as it was supposed to be done."

They nodded in understanding as they knew that the chapter held copies of records of every major village, town and city and updated them every five years and in case of crucial cities every six months, making manipulation of data almost impossible.

They were ready to leave when Sergeant Scipio pulled out a metal chest and placed it on the floor of the room before unlocking the magnetic locks of it and pulling out of it a weird weapon. It had a short, stubby barrel, a massive drum magazine and a set of weird sighs. "Since we can expect hordes of guards of doubtful quality this should help, a grenade launcher," the Sergeant said and looked over them. "Cato, you will carry it and ammunition to it, use it at your own discretion, but be careful with it."

Cato nodded and took the weapon with several sets of spare ammunition, in case they would ever need more, not that here it was likely. Once that was done all of them gathered their gear and walked out of the place where they stayed and into the administrative center of the town. Sentries at its gates looked at them and then quickly moved out of the way as all knew that getting between a Space Marine and his target was a very easy solution for getting murdered.

"I have very, very bad feelings about it," Harry said into the vox, making sure to be too quiet to be heard by the sentries that let them in. "It goes too easy and too fast."

"Aye," Horus nodded and sent a look behind. "If I'm right the moment we get into the audience chamber we will have problems."

"Good eyes and good feelings," Sergeant Scipio said and put on his helmet. "Be prepared to make a hasty retreat and don't have safety on your weapons. I know it is risky, but I prefer getting shot in the foot than have the idiots shoot first."

They nodded and released safety on their weapons right before entering an audience chamber, one that compared to what they saw at the fortress with its masterful artworks and perfection seemed crude. As it was simply a long ferrocrete hall with pillars along the walls and a simple throne below a massive Raptor Imperialis forged out of pure gold at the end of the hall.

"At least we know where all of the tithes and taxes went," the Sergeant said, indicating the Raptor. "Costed more than a good Terminator Armor and could be used on something else."

Harry nodded and focused his eyes on the governor that sat in the throne below the Raptor, he was a tall man with the first signs of gray hair at his temples, an implant instead of his right eye and was dressed in a dress uniform of the Thunder Legion with a wide array of awards displayed across his chest.

"He didn't get above the rank of the Captain," Sergeant Scipio said over the vox. "Lucius Varro and while he was a good officer he didn't stand out in the crowd, nothing brilliant, all campaigns and battles conducted with no flair and by the rules. Was dismissed because of questionable connections and association with certain circles."

Harry nodded and swept his eyes over the room, he quickly noticed several dozen guards hidden behind and by the pillars, from what the sensors of his helmet could tell him all had autoguns and lasguns, the only two weapons that were easily available and not as strictly controlled as everything else. The throne was flanked by a pair of bodyguards in carapace armors and with hotshot lasguns, a thing that was allowed for every governor or steward to have.

"Governor Varro," Sergeant Scipio said without any formalities as their group stopped in front of the throne. "The chapter received some disturbing informations about predicted harvests, tax income and tithe for the Thunder Legion, mind answering some questions before we look at your records."

"Depends what kinds of questions," Varro said coolly. "Remember Marine that I'm the governor of this worthless place and I have the power. So change your tone and show me the respect I deserve."

The Sergeant's eyes flashed dangerously and he looked at the governor. "No, you are forgetting your place, Governor. Yes, I'm just a Marine of the chapter, small issue for you being that I fought enemies of the Imperium when your parents weren't even born and I shattered kingdoms that should have lasted for ages. So your threats don't work on me."

"I see," Varro said. "Then I believe that you won't have access to the records and I won't answer any of your questions."

"I see one small issue with your logic," Sergeant Scipio said, discarding any niceties. "I ask you because I want to be nice, I don't need to do it and can force myself into the hall where the records are held."

"And I can order my guards to detain you and throw into some hole where you will await the time when I see fit to deal with you."

"Fine," Sergeant Scipio said. "Since we are getting nowhere and I'm in hurry you will explain yourself to whoever is the highest officer at the fortress. Hadrian, detain him."

Harry started to pull out the cuffs and walk towards the governor when the guards raised their weapons. "I suggest that you place the cuffs back in the bag and stop where you are," Varro said. "Or the boys will get trigger happy and might shoot you."

"When I drop the smoke grenade crouch and start taking out the guards, your helmets will see through the smoke," the Sergeant said over the vox and then looked at the governor. "So be it." The Sergeant pulled out a pair of grenades and before the guards could react he pulled out the pins and they started to spew out clouds of heavy, dark smoke. At the same time Harry and the rest of the Initiates crouched and started to fire at the guards, too stupefied to react.

Harry aimed at the head of a guard and pulled the trigger and grimly smiled as the guard dropped dead, most of his head and its content on the wall behind him. Then Harry quickly moved the gun to the side and fired at the next guard that seeing his friend's demise started to fire his lasgun into the cloud of smoke. However with no equipment to see through the smoke all of the shots were fired blindly and only hit things on the other side of the chamber.

He noticed some reinforcements rush into the chamber, but before they could get past the door Cato fired his grenade launcher and the twenty guards that entered were turned into pieces of ripped flesh and streams of blood. It also seemed to break the rest of the guards as they started to drop their weapons and raise their hands into the air in obvious signal of surrender.

"It's the end," Sergeant Scipio said as he grasped the governor and pressed his bolter against the skull of the worthless scum. "You fire one shot and he gets a quick death."

The guards dropped their weapons and moved into the open and out of cover, their hands in the air when the cloud of smoke was gone they were routed into the middle of the chamber and guns kicked out of their reach while the governor was tied very tightly and firmly.

The rest of the mission passed very smoothly with the staff being very willing to work and the governor with the evidence and all of the unpaid taxes was loaded onto the Thunderhawk and returned with them into the fortress.

o-0-o

Next week passed surprisingly quickly and easily for their whole group and not only for their as from what they talked with the rest of the Initiates it was obvious that the amount of training and harshness of it dropped and was replaced by more academic one. Not to mention that the Apothecaries in service of the chapter, as well as Magii of Adeptus Mechanicus spent a lot of time conducting various checks and tests.

Exactly seven days after the last mission they were woken up with the first light and their Sergeant gathered them and instead taking them into the dining hall for the first meal of the day, he led them into deeper and underground parts of the fortress that previously were locked for them. They passed dozens of sentries with heavy weapons, automatic defense systems installed in the walls and patrols in Terminator and Centurion armors walking through the corridors. What also got Harry's attention was the fact that the walls were reinforced with auramite, adamantium and some strange white material, all of them covered in hundreds of runes.

"This is as far as I can lead you, the rest is not for me," Sergeant Scipio said as he stopped in front of massive doors forged out of adamantium and emblazoned with the Raptor. The moment their group stopped in front of them, they groaned and slowly opened. "Step through and you will be met by an Apothecary that will explain the rest."

They looked at the Sergeant and then nodded before stepping through the gate, what struck them the most was the smell. Air was heavy with antiseptics and purifiers and everything was scrubbed clean. Before they could see much more their eyes were drawn to an Apothecary that waited for them, his helmet and armor painted white, with only one shoulder pad bearing chapter's colors. To his arm was installed a weird kind of an instrument and overall he exuded an aura of a calm person that knew their job and knew how to help others relax.

"Welcome," he said with a nod. "This is a place where your transformation into Creeds' will begin, before we proceed any further. I want you to undress and take the shower in the stalls to my right. After that we will proceed."

They did as they were told, showering hastily, wanting to be done as quickly as possible as the life in a fortress full of Creeds' and the myths and legends all of them knew made them want to do the same things those Marines could. Once they were done with the shower and standing naked in front of the Apothecary he gave them a look and nodded.

"You're ready," he said and then from the corridor behind him emerged nine more Apothecaries. "For every single one of you there is an Apothecary assigned, you will accompany him into the room where we will perform the necessary surgeries. Hadrian, you will come with me."

Harry walked after the Apothecary, his body slightly shuddering from the cold and a small tint of fear, they entered a small, rectangular room with a simple surgery table placed in the middle, several Serfs and pieces of equipment in the shadows of the room.

"Lay down," the Apothecary said, indicating the table.

Harry climbed onto the table and laid down, his naked body pressed against the cold metal as the Apothecary adjusted its position, making sure that his spine was in line with a groove that ran down the middle of the table and his head with a similar circular hole. Then the Apothecary placed heavy restraints on his limbs, hips and head, more or less immobilizing him and making sure he won't move. Finally a fine web of iv drips was attached to his limbs, pumping a steady stream of various chemicals and medicines into his bloodstream.

"We may begin," the Apothecary said, bracing his hands against Harry's shoulders and giving him a piece of wood wrapped in cloth. "For your own safety, chew as much as you want on it. It will be painful and I don't want you chewing off your own tongue or choking on your own blood."

Harry nodded and bit into the wood, his teeth clenching on it and not letting it go. The moment he did it he heard a fine buzzing sound below his head that quickly grew in intensity. He quickly associated the sound with a drill and almost immediately started to thrash against the restraints that kept him pinned to the table. His eyes widened in a true horror, his teeth clenched on the piece of wood and his whole body spasmed as he felt it dig into his skull. He felt the drill punch through the bone and then he yelled into the piece of wood as the drill retracted and onto the ground fell the matter it removed. He thought that it was the end of his torture, but then several dexter arms reached into the drilled hole and started to push against his brain, making room for something that was to be added. He then felt them push something inside and quickly connect it to the rest of his brain before retracting and leaving him with a hole in the back of his head. If that was not enough of torture, then the drill once again moved and this time he could see it in all of its bloody glory with bits of his flesh and bone covering it, as it hovered above his head before slowly lowering and stopping close to the top of his head. At this he gulped and then it once again started to spin and move towards his skull, as the bone dust and blood started to splatter around he closed his eyes, hoping that his mind would take him away from all of the cruelties done to his body as it was transformed into a Space Marine. Thankfully this time the drill worked for a shorter period of time and the procedure that followed it seemed blissfully short and almost painless compared to the previous one.

o-0-o

The Apothecary braced himself against the body of the Initiate below him as he operated the complex surgical system designed just for the purpose of transforming teen human males into Marines. He guided an arm ended with a drill towards the back of the head of the Initiate and once in position he locked movement of the drill, leaving it only up and down motion and then activated it, making it slowly move towards the skull. It dug into the flesh and he watched the Initiate spasm in horror and pain as the bone was removed and the matter below it revealed.

Once access to the brain was given the Apothecary activated few more dexter and versatile arms that moved into the hole and started to carefully move parts of the brain, preparing the room for the Ossmodula, an organ that would direct the body and its growth spurts making it grow bones into much stronger and harder than they normally would, as well as making them grow in size beyond human limits. However it was just the half of the organs that were responsible for the bone growth as there would be a second organ soon added that would augment it even further. He motioned for a Serf with a tank to move forward and with one of the arms he reached inside and pulled out a small ball of flesh which the army quickly inserted into the prepared place, capillaries and nerves were connected to it and it became a part of the Initiate body.

The Apothecary looked at the head of the Initiate and used sensors of his helmet to mark down the spot where the next zygote would be inserted. He moved the drill into proper place and once he was sure it was the right place he activated it and watched it drill a hole through which he could access the brain. He reached into the hole with a pair of dexter arms and moved aside lobes of the brain and keeping them apart from each other he reached into the tank for the Magnificat and pushed it through the opening before deftly connecting it to the brain around it. It was an organ that worked in synchronization with two other organs, Ossmodula and Biscopea to make the body of a Marine even bigger and tougher than normal human could even hope to be and provide it with a framework of bones on which it could be supported. Once the organ was inserted he looked at the Initiate and at the table around his head that was quickly getting covered in pieces of tissue and blood, plenty of blood.

o-0-o

Harry felt himself somewhat relax, even if he had two holes in his skull and a dull, throbbing pain around them, it was nothing compared to what he felt moments ago. However the calm needed to end and soon he heard the arms move and this time he placed the sound lower than his head which made him wonder what was this time the target of the Apothecary and how truly painful it was going to be.

He felt a brief, sharp spike of pain as a scalpel cut across directly over his spine and revealed the bone with hidden inside of it spinal cord. He expected the Apothecary to drill another hole through his fucking bones, but this time he instead felt two of his vertebrae pushed aside to make a small opening and while painful, he wasn't screaming to the heavens, his body was able to cope with the pain and he felt the Apothecary insert something between the two bones and then let them move into their proper places, after which the arms retracted from his body and let him catch some rest.

o-0-o

The Apothecary guided the arms of the machine lower and extended one with a camera lense that fed its input directly onto the display of his helmet. Seeing Initiate's spine he carefully chose a spot between two vertebrae and made the cut, sharp blade of a scalpel easily parted the skin, fat and muscles, revealing the bone. He used two hook like arms to grasp the bones and pull them apart, letting him have the access to the thing hidden inside, keeping the bones in this position he reached out into the tank and pulled out of it Wraith's Eye an organ unique to the chapter. It made all of the Creeds much more sensitive to the wraithbone in their surroundings and allowed them to affect and shape it to a very limited degree, as well as gave them an innate ability to navigate the Webway. It was a roughly oval one in shape and once it was placed between the vertebrae it almost immediately latched onto the spine, starting to fuse with it, leaving the Apothecary only with connecting it to the bloodstream.

Once that was done the Apothecary removed the arms keeping the bones apart and let them move onto their proper places, ensuring that the organ would be properly protected and no damage would happen to it. Then he looked at the Initiate and his chest that was quickly rising and falling as stress controlled him and his organs worked faster than normally. He considered it for a moment and the motioned for a serf to add several bags of blood to the complicated net of drips attached to the arms of the Initiate as without them there was a good chance of him bleeding out to death.

o-0-o

Harry felt the new needles pierce skin on his arms, but compared to the pain he already felt it was almost nothing and when he thought that the worst was over for him the mechanical arms started to click and move showing in great numbers over his chest. Some of them were clean and unused, but most of them was already covered in his tissue and blood, he eyed them with fear as his body spasmed in panic.

The arms stopped for a moment and then one of them tipped with a scalpel dipped and made a small cut between his ribs at which he let clenched his teeth more on the piece of wood, while a small trickle of blood left the wound. Then a pair of different arms reached inside and started to push against his flesh, forcing it to move to the sides and make room for something inside, it made him gasp and moan in pain. As quickly as they appeared they withdrew and then came one carrying a small ball of flesh that was pushed inside by the arm and then was he could see the arm quickly move as it connected whatever it was to his nervous system and bloodstream.

He thought that it was the end of the torture and the pain, but he was wrong as then a pair of arms moved to stop directly above his sternum and first cut the flesh over it and then broke through the bone itself before pushing it to the side and revealing his every organ and letting him see his own heart and lungs. After that they dived into the cavity and his eyes widened when a jet of crimson blood shot into the air, soon followed by few more at the same time he clenched even harder on the wood and felt it groan under the strain.

He then saw the Apothecary reach to his chest, in his hands something that looked like a heart and place it inside of the open wound known as his chest and then the arms started to click, whirr and move, making his whole chest radiate in searing pain.

o-0-o

The Apothecary looked at the torso of the teen below him and directed the arms to cut a small opening and prepare a pouch for the Biscopea organ between Initiate's ribs. Once that was done the Biscopea was quickly inserted, and almost immediately starting its job of stabilizing the work of Ossmodula and Magnificat, as well as increasing their output. Then the sternum was cut and ribs broken as the Apothecary moved the thing out of his way, letting him access the chest and place inside of it Secondary Heart and connect it to the bloodstream. Out of the five implants, this one was the most risky one and he was glad that he did it quickly and all of the additional blood that was pumped into bloodstream of the Initiate was not needed. Once everything was done he put back in their proper places the ribs and the sternum and knocked out the Initiate with a strike to the head. His survival depended all on his body's ability to accept the implants and use their powers to heal the wounds, he would be given as much blood and nutrients as needed, but he would get no more help than that. The future and his survival was depending on him and his body.

o-0-o

 **A/N – Some explanation of weird things not many may know and new shit created by me for this.**

 **Archmagos Errant** – jack-of-all-trades trades kind of a Magos, not excels at anything, but is more than competent in every field, thus making him an ideal advisor for a chapter master or other high ranking official.

 **Timeline** – currently it is 942.M41 and War for Armageddon just started and went really badly, those who remember certain individual named von Straab will know what I mean. The rest, you will need to wait for the chapters to come.

 **Fortress design** – implantation chambers and the gene-seed banks are the most important to the chapter and to its survival so it being guarded so heavily is kinda expected and in fact most of the active systems isn't activated the moment Harry saw it. Void shields, auramite and adamantium forged blastdoors, wards and hundreds of tripwires and traps. There are also usual meters of rock, ferrocrete and buildings above it all making a task of reaching it almost impossible.

 **Organs** – one of the two they got is a rather well-known one, after all certain twenty-one, I mean twenty individuals have it and when trying to make a contingency plan you would make it as good as you possibly can manage. Second, well, that is a surprise that will reveal itself in due time, just know this, never ever force this chapter to get desperate and determined to survive.

 **Implantation** – Blood Ravens novels by C S Goto and my own ideas.


End file.
